TeamLease Services, one of India’s largest staffing companies, said it has agreed to acquire 40% of Schoolguru Eduserve Private Limited, an Online Learning company that works with 18 Universities.
Established in 2012, Schoolguru provides services to Indian Universities to help them deliver online courses for their students.
It targets open universities or those that have a significant distance education activity.
Schoolguru has been valued at Rs 43 cr for the transaction.
“TeamLease’s infusion of Rs 13.53 Crores into the company shall be primarily used to expand its business into new geographies, strengthen its existing technology and content library, and innovate in new forms of delivery,” the companies said.
The transaction involves the purchase of both primary and secondary shares of the company through a structured deal.
“The purchase of additional stake by TeamLease is linked to the company’s future performance and meeting its milestones,” it said.
Schoolguru’s platform provides services such as a hosting platform, the underlying ERP, admission and fee management, the content, the streaming services, student engagement and communication and student servicing.
Schoolguru currently services 70,000 students through 18 universities.
“TeamLease is looking at expanding its portfolio of employability services through this deal,” the company said.
TeamLease plans to expand its apprenticeship program, NETAP, by offering an opportunity to the students of the partner Universities thereby helping them ‘learn on the job’ and improve their employability quotient.
“We believe education and employability are at an important crossroads in India,” said Ashok Reddy, Managing Director, TeamLease Services.
“To paraphrase a Silicon Valley quip, Software is eating the education world and if you don’t have a place at the table, you are on the menu. We began talks to be a customer for TeamLease Skills University but quickly realized that with some investments Schoolguru could emerge as important platform to accelerate our employability strategy.”
Starting with a team of five members, the Company has grown into a team of 125+ employees, spread across 11 locations. The company has a library of 45 undergraduate courses and 30 masters courses with a total of more than 500,000 minutes of video content.
TeamLease, which started operations in 2002, mainly offers temping services where it provides temporary workforce to its clients on a contract. It primarily caters to manufacturing, banking, FMCG, FMCD, telecom and retail, among others.
TeamLease is a leading human resource service company with over 165,000 associates and trainees in over 6,500 locations.
The company has 8 offices and 1,950 clients across the country for its services in Staffing, Outsourcing and Human Capital.
The deal is expected to close before the end of November 2017.
Schoolguru will continue to operate as a separate and independent entity, the companies added.