Allen Career Institute has successfully acquired Doubtnut in a transaction that values the emerging edtech at $10 million, marking a remarkable turn of events for the once rapidly expanding learning application.
Although the two companies officially announced the agreement on Monday, they chose not to disclose the financial details of the acquisition. Doubtnut, a seven-year-old edtech platform that aids students in solving math and science problems through image-based solutions, had previously secured over $52 million in funding, with support from backers such as Peak XV Partners and James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems.
As market dynamics shifted, Doubtnut engaged with various investors, including Prosus Ventures. However, no deal materialized due to disagreements on valuation, according to sources familiar with the matter. In mid-2020, the prominent Indian edtech player, Byju’s, attempted to acquire Doubtnut, proposing a valuation of up to $150 million, as reported by TechCrunch at the time.
Doubtnut garnered significant attention in 2020 for its innovative use of machine learning and image recognition technology to deliver answers to students in local languages, presenting an alternative method for serving students in one of the largest education markets.
Allen Career Institute, renowned for preparing students for prestigious exams like IIT JEE Mains & Advanced, NEET-UG, KVPY, and the Olympiads, operates one of India’s largest coaching institutes. The institute competes with Aakash, which Byju’s acquired for almost $1 billion last year. Unacademy, an Indian online education platform last valued at $3.4 billion, also explored the possibility of acquiring Allen, according to insiders.
Bodhi Tree, an investment fund led by Murdoch and media veteran Uday Shankar, injected $600 million into Allen last year, valuing the educational institution at over $1 billion.
Nitin Kukreja, CEO of Allen, expressed enthusiasm about the acquisition, stating, “Timely and effective resolution of doubts is a core consumer need in education. Doubtnut’s platform will allow us to greatly enhance the learning experience for our students. We are also excited by the prospects of offering ALLEN’s high-quality academic products to a wider audience.”
