Manipal Group acquires Jigsaw Academy

Jigsaw Academy founders Sarita Digumarti and Gaurav Vohra will continue with the firm, Subrat Mohanty, group president, MEMG, said in an interview.

Manipal ProLearn, part of Manipal Global Education Services Pvt. Ltd, offers certification courses across technology, digital marketing, data sciences, project management and finance.

The acquisition will help MEMG streamline its digital marketing spends and offer a larger set of course offerings to its clients for reskilling and upskilling, Mohanty said. “The complementarity is that they understand the B2C (business to consumer) digital space, which is new for us. The people they have understand this space better than us. We’ll be now going B2C in a big way and with the two of us coming together will make us probably the second largest player," he added. Founded in 2011, Bengaluru-based Jigsaw Academy raised $3 million from Manipal Global Education Services in 2015. The company claims to have more than 50,000 learners across more than 30 countries. In 2017, Jigsaw Academy and the University of Chicago launched a data science and machine learning program.

Upgrading skills is increasingly becoming important for professionals, particularly in technology, fuelling demand for such courses. “Things are changing fast in technology. If one is not able to keep pace, there is a real fear of becoming obsolete like a phone or computer," said Harish H.V., managing partner at ECube, an environmental, social and governance fund.

MEGM estimates the online reskilling and upskilling market at nearly ₹73,0000 crore. There are several start-ups in the space, including the likes of Udacity, Coursera and UpGrad, which are estimated to be growing over 40% year-on-year, according to media reports.

“Jigsaw Academy fits well with Manipal Group. While Jigsaw has created a good brand image in analytics training and is global, it needs a bigger brand name and capital that Manipal can provide. Also, if a professional gets into skill upgradation, he/she would want to use it for career progression. At that time, it helps to have a certificate from a brand like Manipal," says Harish.