Bodhi Tree announces $600M investment, strategic partnership with ALLEN Career Institute

The Allen Career Institute has created sensation in the Global Edtech business by striking $600 million strategic alliance with the famous Bodhi Tree conglomerate. To embrace digital technology driven learning, the successful and proven pedagogy of Allen is seeking its new avatar in the edtech era with the vibrant coalition of the two business giants.

For most part of its journey, Allen Career Institute has been investing in the offline test-preparation business which has hoisted flags of success in the coveted medical and engineering entrance examinations over the years. The pandemic era witnessed beginning of a new era for Allen with the debut of online teaching which also proved to be a success.

Allen has a pan-India base with 138 classroom centers in 46 cities, a team of highly dedicated and renowned faculty members, and a pedagogy that has been perfected over three decades. Allen is also spread its wings of education in the Gulf countries also.

Bodhi Tree Systems is a newly formed platform between Lupa Systems Founder and CEO James Murdoch and Uday Shankar, the former president of The Walt Disney Company Asia Pacific and former Chairman of Star and Disney India. Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar, is an investor in Bodhi Tree Systems.

“Education is a critical consumer need, driven by its deeply transformative impact on lives and livelihoods of consumers.”, Murdoch and Shankar said. We are excited to work with the Maheshwari family to build an outcomes-focused digital education company that delivers on the aspirations of millions of learners and parents in India and beyond.”

Now to take the digital learning to new scale, Bodhi Tree Systems will leverage its founders’ shared track record of building iconic consumer businesses to build ALLEN into a world-class digital education business of the future.

Founded by Rajesh Maheshwari in 1988, Allen is India’s most respected test prep brand that has created a positive transformational impact on over 2.5 million young lives since its inception. Aspirants for engineering and medical college entrance exams have gained tremendously from ALLEN’s high-quality pedagogy, resulting in an unparalleled track record of selections in prestigious exams such as IIT JEE Mains & Advanced, NEET-UG, KVPY, and the Olympiads.

Senior-most Director of ALLEN, Govind Maheshwari, said, “Our decision to enter into this strategic partnership with Bodhi Tree is founded on shared values, principles and an aligned vision of creating societal impact at scale through education globally.”

“Since its inception, ALLEN has focused on providing high quality education to students to help them achieve their highest potential and fulfil their career aspirations. In the process, we have helped create hundreds of thousands of doctors and engineers, who contribute to building India and the society of today. Our partnership with Bodhi Tree is an essential ingredient in furthering our mission to significantly increase ALLEN’s reach and impact”, Rajesh Maheshwari said.

ALLEN’s Director Naveen Maheshwari said, “The journey of ALLEN has been one of always giving back to the society. ALLEN’s student-centric caring system has been its highlight. We believe this partnership is only going to take our pedagogy, caring-system and values to a very wide student community which was not able to associate with ALLEN otherwise due to physical constraints.”

Chairman-designate of the new Board, Brajesh Maheshwari further mentioned, “Most of the edtech products & services in the market are currently not solving the needs of a student. With ALLEN’s time-tested pedagogy and Bodhi Tree’s track record in technology, the 2 T’s-

‘Teaching’ and ‘Technology’, will now come together to finally solve the problems of millions of students of outcome-driven learning in a tech-enabled environment.”

The transaction is expected to close within three months and is subject to closing conditions and requisite approvals.

EY acted as the exclusive financial advisor. Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas provided legal advisory and documentation support to ALLEN. EY provided due diligence services to Bodhi Tree. AZB & Partners were the legal advisors to Bodhi Tree.