Masai School, a 21st-century career-focused skilling institute, has acquired Delhi-based Prepleaf, an end-to-end placement preparation company that focuses on Data Analytics, for $1 million.
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.
Co-founded in 2017 by IIT Kanpur alumni Ankit Agrawal, Amit Saharan and Aman Singhal, Prepleaf helps college students and graduates start their career in Analytics and Data Science through its five-month, zero-upfront, job-guarantee program.
Currently, Prepleaf has around 250 students enrolled in the Data Analytics test preparation courses. In January 2021, the company started its outcome-driven cohort-based courses with a 5-month duration, with an end-to-end and comprehensive training curriculum. With a zero-upfront fee and an Income-Sharing Agreement, Prepleaf guarantees jobs to any enrolled student with a minimum promise of Rs.5 lakh or above in salary packages.
Talking about the platform, Co-founder and CEO of Prepleaf, Ankit Agrawal, 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.”
Bangalore-based Masai School, started in June 2019 by Prateek Shukla, Nrupul Dev and Yogesh Bhat, offers a variety of learning tracks such as Full Stack Web Development (full-time and part-time programmes) and a UI/UX Design Programme (full-time programme), Data Analytics, Product Management to name a few.
While the mode of education is primarily online, Masai School’s offline campuses are now open in Bengaluru, Patna, Pune and Indore. The startup has more than 700 hiring partners including Samsung, Sharechat, Urban Company, Instamojo, Airmeet, GlobalLogic, Lendingkart, Mobile Premier League (MPL), Nobroker and Paytm. The company follows the Income Sharing Agreement (ISA) model which allows for students to & Study Now and Pay Later.
Speaking about the acquisition, Co-founder and CEO of Masia School, Prateek Shukla, said, “Ankit, Aman and Amit are hustlers by nature, and have spent a considerable amount of time in outcome-based education. Their forte is the technology and their pedagogy. It was an obvious choice for us to place our bets on Prepleaf.”
He further added, “This acquisition takes Masai one step closer towards our mission of increasing India’s employability quotient and improving accessibility of quality holistic and outcome-driven education for all to build a rewarding career with a skills-first approach. We want to become the go-to institute for India’s top companies to source high-caliber skilled talent across the spectrum.”
Masai School focuses on Tier II and Tier III financially underprivileged students and provides them to learn and get placed in a software company. The company has partnered with startups like large information technology services firms and multinational companies for placements. So far, it has placed around 400 students and the number is expected to go to 1,500 in the next two quarters.
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.
Earlier this year, Masai School acquired Bengaluru-based institute Design Shift Academy to offer courses in User Experience Design (UX) and User Interface Design (UI), in addition to a successful Full Stack Web Development course.
Masai School had raised an undisclosed amount of funding from 21 angel investors from the Indian startup ecosystem, including CRED Founder Kunal Shah, Paytm Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, among others in October this year.
