Edtech startup Masai School acquires data analytics firm Prepleaf for $1 million

Prepleaf, founded in 2017 by IIT Kanpur alumni Ankit Agrawal, Amit Saharan and Aman Singhal, offers 5-month-long courses in Data Analytics.

With this acquisition, Masai will now offer courses in Data and Business Analytics, in addition to Web Development and UI/UX Design, aiming to become a one-stop destination for outcome-based education in India, founder and chief executive Prateek Shukla told ET.

The acquisition comes after the company announced an undisclosed funding from the likes of Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma and CRED founder Kunal Shah in October and had raised a Series A round led by Omidyar Network India earlier in the year. This is Masai School’s second acquisition after Bengaluru-based institute Design Shift Academy to offer courses in User Experience Design (UX) and User Interface Design (UI), in addition to its Full Stack Web Development course.

“Since we offer outcome-based education modes, we are constantly evolving our curriculum allowing us to offer the most relevant skilled resources. Over 50 startup CTOs help us develop the curriculum so people can start working immediately with relevant skill sets. We have over 700 hiring partners recruiting skilled developers from us. This acquisition helps us increase the offering for our hiring partners” Shukla said.

Around 65% of Masai School full time students come from non-computer science backgrounds with at least 20% joining after their 12th standard without undergraduate degrees. Over 70% of these students come from tier 2 and 3 cities. Engineering students usually opt for part-time courses.

Currently, Prepleaf has around 250 students enrolled in the Data Analytics test preparation courses. Like Masai, Preleaf offers courses through an income share agreement, where students study at zero-upfront fees and only pay if they earn more than Rs 5 lakh per annum, after course completion. Prepleaf’s average placement rate is 90% with an average salary package of Rs 7.5 lakh. Masai School offers courses online and through its offline campuses in Bengaluru, Patna, Pune and Indore. Masai School’s 700+ hiring partners include Samsung, Sharechat, Urban Company, Instamojo, Airmeet, GlobalLogic, Lendingkart, Mobile Premier League (MPL), Nobroker and Paytm.

Ankit Agrawal, cofounder, Prepleaf said, “Prepleaf was founded with the single-minded focus of creating a paradigm shift in access to quality tech education and jobs in Data and Business Analytics. We are certainly thrilled to be part of the Masai family and make this ambition a reality by transforming the way skill-based education is delivered today and creating a world-class talent pool from India.”

Founded in 2019, Bengaluru-based Masai School works with NBFCs to underwrite the students’ fees. He added that Masai School is on track to report annualised revenue rate of $ 18 million by the next financial year.

“ We hope to have over 30,000 students graduating next year. Earlier we used to think that we should expand to other geographies but we realised that post-Covid global companies are hiring from us anyway . So, we will continue to focus on the Indian market,” said Shukla.