The Indian Conglomerate Has Acquired 72.69 Percent Of Shares In The Edtech Company With An Investment Of $180 Million Over Three Years
Reliance has agreed to invest up to $180 million over three years into Embibe, which uses data analytics to deliver personalised learning to students. The ed-tech company will use the capital for business growth, geographical expansion, and to deepen its R&D on AI in education.
It will also focus on catering to students across K-12, higher education, professional skilling, vernacular languages, and all curriculum categories across India and internationally, Reliance said.
“The investment in Embibe underlines Reliance’s commitment to growing the education sector in India and the world, and making education accessible to the widest possible group of students by deploying technology,” said Reliance Jio director Akash Ambani.
The founder and CEO of Embibe, Aditi Avasthi will continue in her leadership role and will drive the growth of the business. Speaking on this strategic transaction, Akash Ambani, director of Reliance Jio, said, “The investment in Embibe underlines Reliance’s commitment to growing the education sector in India and the world and making education accessible to the widest possible group of students by deploying technology. Reliance aims to connect over 1.9 million schools and 58,000 universities across India with technology. We are delighted to announce this partnership with Embibe, and believe that their highly experienced management team will be instrumental in enabling Reliance to realize its vision for the education sector, and strengthening Jio’s leadership position as a digital technology company.”
Over the last five years Embibe says it has impacted the lives of over 15 million students. Sixty leading educational institutions from the private and public sectors in India benefit from its newly launched AI driven education platform-as-a-service. Embibe counts Lightbox Ventures and Kalaari Capital amongst its investors.
Citibank acted as financial advisor, AZB & Partners, Covington & Burling LLP and KPMG acted as legal advisors and Pricewaterhouse Coopers provided tax advisory and diligence services to RIL. Embibe was advised by Arpwood Capital, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Partners, and Khaitan & Company as legal advisors and Deloitte Touché Tohmatsu Limited for tax advisory services.
Reliance Industries is India’s largest private sector company, with a consolidated turnover of $50.9 billion for the year ended 31 March, 2017. RIL whose activities span hydrocarbon exploration and production, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals, retail and 4G digital services, will now foray into education services built on an AI platform.
