Great Learning, a BYJU’S group company has acquired Singapore-based Northwest Executive Education, a global provider of executive education programs. The acquisition would provide more choices for professional learners with programs from various universities across the US, Europe, Latin America, India, and Asia.
Edtech unicorn Byju has acquired Singapore-based Northwest Executive Education in a stock and cash deal of around USD 100 million, according to media reports.
“Byju’s is aggressively focusing on the higher education segment and Northwest Executive’s acquisition will just add to it,” said one of the people cited above. “Northwest Executive’s capabilities will go well with Great Learning,” the person added.
This is yet another investment from the Bengaluru-based Byju’s in the executive education space after buying Great Learning in a USD 600 million deal last year.
In February this year, Great Learning acquired Superset, a recruitment platform backed by Blume Ventures.
About Northwest
Founded in 2015, Northwest Executive Education offers long-format comprehensive programs by global educational institutions including MIT, UC Berkeley, Yale, UCLA, University of Chicago, and the National University of Singapore, among others. The company said it is expanding across the US, Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
The company focuses on offering programs in management, leadership, technology, healthcare, innovation, and other in-demand executive learning areas, adding that it has enrolled participants from over 50 countries across its program portfolio. Northwest also claimed that it has achieved around a 99% completion rate since its inception.
Post the acquisition, Northwest will continue to operate as an independent organization under the leadership of its co-founders, Mohit Jain, Tamhant Jain, and Maitreyi Singhvi, the company said.
Northwest and Great Learning would leverage synergies to expand the portfolio of offerings and cater to learners across India, Asia, the US, Latin America, and Europe in blended and online learning formats, Northwest said.
Byju’s and Great Learning
At the time of the Great Learning acquisition, Byju’s had said it had earmarked another USD 400 million of investment into the professional skilling and lifelong learning segment.
Since the Byju deal last year, Great Learning has expanded operations and now has around four million learners from more than 170 countries along with a network of over 4,700 industry experts.
Backed by Silver Lake, Blackrock, and other investors, Byju’s spent more than $2 billion in acquisitions last year with brick-and-mortar coaching network Aakash Institute being its biggest M&A to date.
The Aakash Institute deal was valued at nearly USD 1 billion. Epic and Toppr are some of its other prominent acquisitions.
Byju’s is valued at USD 22 billion after it announced a USD 800 million funding round in March where company founder Byju Raveendran is investing USD 400 million on his own to increase his stake in the firm. Sumeru Ventures, Vitruvian Partners, and BlackRock were the other investors who participated in the capital raising.
Byju’s has been strengthening its higher education vertical over the last two years, primarily with acquisitions. It acquired Great Learning in 2021 to expand its offerings beyond the K-12 (kindergarten to class 12) and test prep segments.
Founded in 2013, Great Learning claims to have delivered over 85 million hours of learning to four million learners from more than 170 countries. The upskilling platform said it leverages a network of over 4,700 industry experts and mentors and works with more than 6,200 corporate partners for their upskilling and talent needs.
