Blackstone has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a controlling stake in Simplilearn Solutions, an online learning ‘bootcamp’ offering digital skills training and courses to working professionals all over the world.

Simplilearn was founded in 2010 by its CEO Krishna Kumar. Profitable for the fourth year in a row, the platform offers over 100 programs to help early to mid-career professionals acquire new-age digital skills across Cloud, DevOps, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Digital Marketing, Cyber Security and many more.

Krishna Kumar, Founder & CEO, Simplilearn, said, “We are excited to partner with Blackstone, a globally recognized investor with a strong track record in the ed-tech sector. We believe Blackstone can add significant value to our company because of their scale, commitment to building businesses, and global network, which will enable us to develop partnerships with businesses and universities as Simplilearn continues to expand around the world.”

Amit Dixit, Head of Asia for Blackstone Private Equity, said, “This is Blackstone’s first private equity investment in Asia in a consumer technology company. Like many other sectors, technology is disrupting education and education technology has been a high conviction theme for Blackstone in India and globally. Simplilearn is a differentiated player in the digital skilling space with premium content created in partnership with marquee university and industry partners.” 

Blackstone brings global expertise in education technology, including the partnership with Aakash Educational Services and Byju’s to build India’s largest digitally enabled, omnichannel education company; acquisition of Ascend Learning, which provides technology-based educational content and software tools for students, institutions, and employers; and recent investments in Ellucian (a leading software provider to universities) and Articulate (a SaaS training and development platform for companies).