Adda247 Acquires StudyIQ In $20 Mn Cash And Stock Deal To Strengthen UPSC & State PSC Offering

Indian edtech startup Adda247 has acquired Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam-focused edtech startup StudyIQ for $20 Mn (INR 150 Cr) in a cash and stock deal. 

Founded by Abhishek Jain and Gaurav Garg  in 2014, StudyIQ is a Delhi-based edtech platform targeted at people preparing for UPSC and State Public Service Commission (PSC) exams. It claims to have an organic subscriber base of more than 11 Mn users and over 100 Mn views a month.

StudyIQ reported its gross revenue for FY21 as INR 33 Cr, which represents a 3x growth over the previous year, it claimed. 

“StudyIQ has been revolutionising the segment with a phenomenal success rate in these high stake exams. StudyIQ students will invariably figure among top 10 rankers in most of the State PSC exams. We will get a huge leverage of their strength in the segment and the brand they have created over the years.” said  Anil Nagar, founder and CEO of Adda247.

Founded in 2016 by Anil Nagar and Saurabh Bansal, Adda247 started as a government job test-prep platform. It helps students with live courses catering to audiences in tier 2, 3 and smaller towns. It claims to have more than 15 Mn monthly active users (MAUs) and 2 Mn paid users on its platform.

“We craved for a pan India impact, which was difficult to achieve in an offline setting. We wanted to be a part of India’s digital education revolution. What started out as a passion of two educators turned into a mission to provide quality education at an affordable price.” Gaurav Garg, the cofounder of Study IQ, said.

Bengaluru-based edtech startup Unacademy, which also offers UPSC, PSC and other test-prep options, saw its losses widen to 494% for the fiscal year ending in 2021 at INR 1,537 Cr in FY21 compared to INR 258.6 Cr in the previous year.

Inc42 data shows that in 2021 alone, Indian edtech startups have raised close to $5 Bn in funding, including the Term B Loan funds ($1.2 Bn) raised by BYJU’s. And if we look at overall funds raised by edtech startups between 2014 and 2021, it stands at $8.1 Bn, highlighting the massive jump in the investors’ appetite towards edtech startups. It goes without saying that the pandemic has been a booster for the segment since last year. For example, of the five unicorns in the edtech space, four have entered the club in 2020-2021 alone. 

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