ICICI Bank is an Indian multinational banking and financial services company that has recently announced to have bought a 9.09% stake in an educational technology start-up, Myclassboard Educational Solutions.
The deal has been concluded at a consideration of INR 4.5 crore. The banking company announced the news on Tuesday (29-12-2020) that it has entered into an agreement to make an investment in the edtech platform.
According to the regulatory filings filed with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), it is clearly mentioned post-acquisition, ICICI Bank will be a shareholder of 9.09% stake in Myclassboard Educational Solutions by taking over 100 equity shares and 1,04,890 Preference Shares (Cumulative Compulsorily Convertible) on a fully diluted basis, as reported by Live Mint.
According to the provisions and guidelines by the government authorities, when a shareholding is supposed to be below 10%, regulatory approval is not required. Similar is the case with this acquisition, ICICI Bank confirms that because the shareholding acquired will be below 10%, the bank need not take any regulatory approval.
MyClassboard platform helps school authorities and administration to manage all school-related clerical tasks such as managing staff and student data, streamlining tasks and enhancing the communication between parents and schools. The platform is a one-stop software for all school and college-related management tasks.
The start-up was founded back in 2009 by Ajay Sakhamuri with a reported turnover of INR 12 crore in Financial Year 2020 and according to a report by Live Mint, INR 95.8 crore in Financial Year 2019.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the education system in India to a halt, because of which schools and colleges and other educational institutions have been forced to shut. This directly affects and impacts the education of children which is not to be compromised at any costs.
Technology and online platforms have become the primary source of education for children and educational technology start-ups have grown tremendously during these past few months. Investors from all over the world are eying to capitalise on this opportunity as the education technology ecosystem in India is still growing and shows promising potential for the future as well.
With schools and colleges shut, Myclassboard Educational Solutions must have incurred losses but as the situation will come back to normal with the reopening of schools and other educational institutions, the platform will peak back up again, according to analysts.