Former Zomato CEO Rakesh Ranjan To Lead Allen’s Digital Arm

Rakesh Ranjan, former CEO of Zomato’s food delivery business, has joined test preparation centre Allen Career Institute as the CEO of its digital arm. 

Ranjan succeeds Abha Maheshwari, who stepped down from the role of Allen Digital CEO last month. 

In his new role, Ranjan will lead Allen’s digital strategy and operations, along with scaling technology and AI-based learning experience. 

Ranjan stepped down from the position of CEO at Zomato in April. He was with the company for nearly 8 years. He joined Zomato in 2017 as the global business head for Zomato Gold. Over the years, he took various leadership roles at the company, including vice president for food delivery, chief sales officer, and CEO of Hyperpure.

Before joining Zomato, he worked with Boston Consulting Group and PwC.

Founded in 1988 by Rajesh Maheshwari, Allen Career Institute forayed into building digital-first and online programmes in 2022. Abha Maheshwari played a key role in building the company’s tech team in Bengaluru. 

The education institute offers test preparation courses for JEE and NEET exams. The company claims that its AI chat bot achieved an AIR-equivalent rank of 8 in NEET 2025. 

Meanwhile, Allen Digital claims to have enabled more than 1,200 students, including 220 from live programmes, to secure admission to IITs in 2024 and 2025.

Overall, Allen Career Institute claims to have mentored more than 30 Lakh students to date.

Last year, reports said that Allen Career Institute was in advanced discussions to acquire edtech startup Unacademy at a likely valuation of $800 Mn. However, there has been no further updates on this. 

In 2023, Allen acquired AI-led doubts solving platform Doubtnut to build technology-led learning solutions. 

India’s edtech market, which has been seeing a slowdown post Covid-19 and hit due to the insolvency proceedings of its once posterboy BYJU’S, is adapting to the AI wave and looking to make a comeback. 

In July, edtech startup Arivihan bagged $4.2 Mn to strengthen its AI research and language support capabilities. The startup leverages AI to offer personalised tutoring to K-11 and K-12 students.

AI giant OpenAI is also looking to partner Indian schools and colleges to offer a copilot-like experience for students and teachers. Meanwhile, Alakh Pandey-led PhysicsWallah is set to become India’s first edtech startup to hit the public market after receiving SEBI’s approval for its IPO recently.