Educomp Solutions Ltd Company Summary

Educomp Solutions Ltd is Indias largest integrated education company. The company is a globally diversified education solutions provider and the largest education company in India. They offer education products and solutions for K-12 in the country, coupled with a large footprint in preschool, vocational and higher education. They also operate schools under The Millennium School brand name; design training institutes under Raffles Millennium International brand name; and ETEN, a tele-education network. In addition, they operate and franchise Roots to Wings, a chain of pre-schools.The companys primary market currently is in India. The company also has a strong global footprint spanning US, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Canada and operates through its various subsidiaries, including AuthorGen Technologies Pvt Ltd, Educomp Learning Hour Pvt Ltd, Learning Internet Inc, USA, AsknLearn Pte Ltd, Singapore and Savvica Inc in Canada. Their products include Smart class, a teacher-led content delivery system; Roots to Wings, a pre-school learning system, and Mathguru.com, an online learning initiative.Educomp Solutions Ltd was incorporated on September 7, 1994 as a private limited company with the name Educomp Datamatics Pvt Ltd. Till 1999, the company was engaged in the business of setting up and maintaining of computer labs in private schools under BOOT model and in government schools under subcontract awarded by Government of India Undertakings.In the year 1998, the company launched eCampus and in the year 1999, they launched PlanetVidya.com- an educational portal. In the year 2000, the company started their trading operations with CD-ROMs. In June 2000, Carlyle, a US Investment company made a strategic investment amounting to USD 2.10 million for a 15% equity stake in the company. In September 18, 2000, the company was converted into public limited company and the name was changed to Educomp Datamatics Ltd. In the year 2002, the company entered the e-learning space with its Learning Mate division and launched Learning Mate Nhance, a learning Content Management platform. Also, they set up their wholly owned subsidiary, Edumatics Corporation, in US. In June 2003, the company launched Smart Class Content solutions, a novel concept in Education space, which is aimed at transforming an entire classroom into a Technology enabled classroom.In the year 2003, the company floated a subsidiary, namely Learning Mate Solutions Pvt. Ltd. In the year 2004, they set up R&D division. In August 2004, the company entered the US market with the signing of a US pilot project with Franklin Elementary School, Santa Barbara, California, U.S.A. In November 2004, they entered the Asia Pacific Market with pilot projects at Cedar Girls School, Singapore. In the year 2005, the company launched Online Tutoring for teaching mathematics to the students in the US. In July 2005, Carlyle exited from the company by selling their stake in the company to the promoters in return for the promoters relinquishing their stake in Learning Mate Solutions Pvt Ltd. In August 22, 2005, the name of the company was changed from Educomp Datamatics Ltd to Educomp Solutions Ltd. During the year 2005-06, they launched Mathguru.com.During the year 2006-07, the company launched first pre-school in Delhi under the brand Roots to Wings. They signed up with 331 private schools for Smart Class and commenced operations in 3 pre-schools under Root to Wings. The company purchased 76% stake in Three Brix E Services Pvt Ltd at Rs 2.50 crore.During the year 2007-08, the company set up 8 learning centers under learninghour.com to leverage the tutoring market opportunity. They acquired 70.05% stake on a fully diluted basis in Toronto-based Savvica Inc for USD 2 million. They also acquired Singapore-based AsknLearn Inc for S$ 5.98 million and acquired 51% strategic stake in AuthorGen Technologies (P) Ltd for Rs 27 million.During the year, the company entered into partnership with Microsoft to make available Educomps graphical curriculum content on XBOX360 platform. They made a partnership with US-based learning.com, premier provider of Web-enhanced curriculum and assessment. The company in collaboration with HCL, Intel and LG conducted road shows in 114 cities across the country. During the year, the company invested in Edu Infra and Edu Manage to set up private K-12 schools. They signed a contributor agreement with Synergy Adlabs Media Limited to provide content development, primarily 1,500 questions, for their television show Kya Aap Paanchvi Paas Se Tez Hain?, the Indian version of the hit US show Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?. In the year 2008, the company restructured their subsidiaries Edu Infra and Edu Manage into one entity Edu Infra.During the year 2008-09, the company expanded beyond their core business to provide educational services for Pre-School, Higher Education and Skill-based Vocational Education in India. They set up two Raffles Millennium International design centres in Delhi and Bangalore. In September 2008, the company acquired a 50% controlling equity interest in EuroKids for a consideration of Rs 390 million to strengthen their position in Pre-Schools segment through a multi-brand strategy. During the year, the company signed an exclusive agreement with FTK Technologies Ltd enabling it to offer LooKeys Standard, which provides chat, email and online/ offline word processing functionality in a number of Indian languages. They acquired popular education portal Studyplaces.com during the year. In October 2008, the company acquired a 51% stake in Takshila Management Services Pvt Ltd.During the year, the company through Educomp Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, a 100% subsidiary company, acquired a 51% stake in Learning Internet Inc, a US-based leading premier provider of web-delivered curriculum and assessment, partnering with schools & districts to serve nearly two million students throughout the US. Also, their subsidiary, Educomp Infrastructure and School Management Ltd started delivery of Infrastructure and Content/ IP / services to Millennium Schools.The company entered into a 50: 50 Joint Venture with Pearson plc, an International Education and Information company for delivering a full span of world-class training, assessment and accreditation across a variety of skills and industries at a time of strong and growing demand for effective adult learning opportunities. Also, the company through their fully owned subsidiary entered into a 50: 50 JV with Raffles Education Corporation, Singapore to set up Raffles Millennium International colleges that offer Raffles-Millennium branded Higher Education and Professional Development programs and courses in India.In May 2009, the company changed the name of their ICT Solutions division to Edureach to reflect the fact that the business extends beyond ICT Government and computer-aided learning projects. Also, they entered in a BOOT contract with various state Governments for a specified number of schools earmarked by the contract for a period of three to six years. In June 30, 2009, the company transferred their Vocational Education business to Educomp Vocational Education Pvt Ltd, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of the company.During the year 2008-09, they set up two wholly-owned subsidiaries, namely Educomp Intelprop Ventures Pte Ltd, Singapore and Educomp Online Supplemental Service Ltd. They bagged order worth Rs 51.15 crore from Bihar Government for Implementation of Computer education in 600 schools across 13 districts in Bihar under the ICT at School Project for the period of three years on BOOT basis across rural and urban areas in the state. They transferred 1,323 existing schools signed under BOOT business to EduSmart Services Pvt Ltd.In April 2010, the company entered into a joint venture with Lavasa Corporation, to set up International Residential School in Indias largest Hill City near Pune in Sahayadri Mountains. In May 2010, they bagged Rs 511.4 million contract from Bihar Government. In June 2010, the company transferred their entire shareholding in Authorgen Technologies Ltd and Educomp Learning Hour Pvt Ltd to their subsidiary, Educomp Online Supplemental Service Ltd to consolidate their online business. In July 29, 2010, the company set up one wholly-owned subsidiary, Educomp Investment Management Ltd. In August 2010, the company picked up a strategic stake in engineering test prep player Vidya Mandir Classes Pvt Ltd for close to Rs 34 crore.In September 2010, the company was conferred the e-India 2010 Citizens Choice 1 Award for Teaching Learning Paradigm through ICT Intervention in Digital Learning Magazine, in recognition of our achievement in ushering a whole new teaching learning paradigm in schools across India.In October 2010, China Distance Education Holdings Ltd (CDEL) and the company entered into an agreement whereby the company through their Singapore subsidiary AsknLearn Pte, granted CDEL exclusive rights to license and distribute the companys Smart Class, Edulearn and Wizlearn products in the Peoples republic of China.Post March 31, 2011, the company acquired majority stake in Gateforum Education Services Pvt Ltd, the provider of preparatory tools for Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE). Thus, Gateforum Educational Services Pvt Ltd became Subsidiary of the company. Also, the company entered into a new joint venture with Zeebo Inc, USA, by investing in Zeebo Interactive Studio Pvt Ltd, an associate company.