BackNext Education buys assets of InOpen in all-cash deal
The deal will give Next Education access to Computer Masti, a computer science-focused curriculum developed by IIT-Bombay and InOpen
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Hyderabad: Digital education provider Next Education India Pvt. Ltd has bought the assets of InOpen Technologies Pvt. Ltd in an all-cash deal that will give it access to Computer Masti, a computer science-focused curriculum developed by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bombay and InOpen.
The companies refused to disclose the size of the acquisition. It was funded through Next Education’s internal accruals, Kamath Raveendranath, chief financial officer and co-founder of Next Education, said in a phone interview.
The company is backed by four high-networth individuals who have invested ₹ 350 crore in three rounds since inception in 2007. It has yearly revenue of around ₹ 150 crore.
The asset purchase will provide an exit to InOpen’s investors Ventureast, Japanese education provider Benesse Corp. and others.
The deal will enable Hyderabad-based Next Education to include computer science curriculum in its courses from kindergarten to Class VIII. Next Education’s online learning solutions are used by 7 million students in 7,000 schools across the country. The asset purchase will give it access to 600,000 students that currently use Computer Masti.
Computer Masti was designed by IIT-Bombay faculty Sridhar Iyer and InOpen chief executive Rupesh Kumar Shah after four years of research. Rather than imparting mere software-specific skills, it focuses on nurturing thinking abilities through computer science fundamentals.
“We started with a whole philosophy that the way computer science is being taught, there is a lot of focus on the software specific applications and not underlying concepts," Shah said in a phone interview. He pointed out that it is more important for a person to learn the art of writing a letter than just learning how to send an email.
“Somebody who understands how to write an algorithm would write better code. We wanted to integrate thinking skills through computer science (education),"added Shah.
About 25 employees of InOpen will join the rolls of Next Education, which employs 1,500 people. Shah, however, will not be joining the firm. Iyer will engage with Next Education to advise on the content.
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