The Allen Career Institute has acquired Doubtnut in a deal that values the edtech startup at $10 million, according to a person familiar with the matter, a stunning reversal of fortune for the once fast-growing learning app.
The two companies confirmed the deal on Monday but declined to share the financial terms of the acquisition. Seven-year-old Doubtnut, whose learning app helps students solve math and science by taking pictures of themselves, raised more than $52 million before the takeover and counted Peak XV Partners and James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems among its backers.
As the market turned, Doubtnut worked with several investors, including Prosus Ventures, but no deal ever materialized due to disagreements over valuation, according to people familiar with the matter. In mid-2020, Indian edtech giant Byju’s tried to acquire Doubtnut, valuing the young startup at up to $150 million, TechCrunch reported at the time.
Doubtnut gained significant attention in 2020 for using machine learning and image recognition technology to provide answers in local languages to students, demonstrating an alternative approach to serving students in one of the largest education markets.
Allen — which helps prepare students who want to crack prestigious exams like IIT JEE Mains & Advanced, NEET-UG, KVPY and Olympiads — runs one of the largest coaching institutes in India. The company competes with Aakash, which Indian tech giant Byju’s acquired last year for nearly $1 billion. Indian online platform Unacademy, which was last valued at $3.4 billion, explored acquiring Allen earlier, according to people familiar with the matter.
Bodhi Tree, another investment fund of Murdoch and media veteran Uday Shankar, invested $600 million in Allen last year, valuing the educational institution at more than $1 billion.
“Timely and effective resolution of doubts is a basic need of consumers in education. Doubtnut’s platform will allow us to significantly improve the learning experience for our students. We are also excited by the prospects of bringing ALLEN’s high-quality academic products to a wider audience,” said Nitin Kukreja, CEO of Allen, in a statement.
