BENGALURU : Accenture will acquire California-based edtech platform Udacity for an undisclosed sum. The move is part of Accenture’s broader initiative to invest $1 billion over three years in strengthening senior skills for its clients.
Accenture also unveiled its advanced platform, LearnVantage, on Tuesday to rope in clients who require technology learning and training in technology, data and artificial intelligence (AI).
This acquisition and launch of the LearnVantage platform comes at a time when the demand for advanced skills, particularly in the generative AI sector, is becoming increasingly prevalent across the IT services industry globally. This could mean ample business for the world’s leading software outsourcing firms.
All 230 Udacity professionals will join Accenture’s team, the latter said in a statement on Wednesday. “The acquisition will bring to Accenture Udacity’s capabilities to integrate proprietary content, experiential services and scalable learning technology while bridging online education and workplace relevance,” Accenture said.
Udacity, founded by Sebastian Thrun in 2011, provides job-ready certified skills. It achieved unicorn status in 2015 after a $105 million Series D funding round. It offers AI and machine learning software, and its clients include Google, Microsoft, IBM and AT&T.
Udacity was earlier in talks with Bollywood film producer and investor, Ronnie Screwvala’s edtech company UpGrad, to sell its majority stake at a valuation of $100 million, marking a significant value erosion as the edtech industry continues to struggle in the wake of the downturn in the most high edtech company of the world, Byju’s.
The drop in Udacity’s rating also reflects the overall health of the edtech industry. “How the Byju crash has affected the overall edtech industry depends on the stage each company is in, and where in edtech it serves. Edtech in India and China is not looking good today. China has had its political changes, and India has also had challenges ,” said Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of Coursera, in an interview with Mint the 14th of January.
“From during the covid-19 pandemic and now, funding has gone from as much money as you could ask for at an incredibly high valuation, to much higher conservatism. No investor will currently invest in local content companies – language is no longer a differentiator, nor content-domain expertise. New startups have no distribution, making this one of the worst segments to be in—especially in edtech parlance,” Maggioncalda added.
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Published: 06 Mar 2024, 15:08 IST