Educomp Solutions

Educomp Solutions Limited was founded as a private limited company by Shantanu Prakash, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and Shri Ram College of Commerce in September 1994.^[7] The organization was engaged the business of setting up and maintaining of computer labs in private schools under the BOOT model and in government-run schools under subcontracts awarded by Indian government undertakings.^[8] The company launched eCampus and PlanetVidya.com in 1998.^[9] In 2000, the company started its trading operations with CD-ROMs. In September 2000, the firm was converted into a public limited company. In October 2000, the company received a US$2.5 million strategic investment from The Carlyle Group.^[10] The company entered the India's e-learning market in 2002 by launching LearningMate in partnership with US-based educational technology company Blackboard Inc.^[11] In June 2003, it launched Educomp Smartclass,^[12] a hardware for digitally equipping classrooms. In August 2004, it entered the American market by signing a US pilot project with Santa Barbara-based Franklin Elementary School.^[13] In 2005, Educomp was conferred the "CNBC-ICICI Bank Emerging India Award" as the ‘Company of the year 2005’ in the ICE and ITeS category.^[14] In 2008, it acquired 51% stake in Takshila Management Services. The company was on the height of its success between the years 2008 and 2012.^[15] In 2013, the firm signed a memorandum of understanding with Singapore's Raffles Institution.^[16] In July 2016, ESL announced a joint venture called Ebix Educomp Solutions in which ESL held 49% stake, while the remaining 51% stake is held by Ebix Software.^[3] In May 2017, the company filed for insolvency in National Company Law Tribunal.^[17] In January 2018, Educomp launched an e-learning platform, SmartclassOnline.^[18] In April 2018, Ebix purchased a majority stake of US$8 million for Smartclass Educational Services Pvt. Ltd (SESPL),^[19][20] thus paving the way for the former to enter India's 30 billion dollar digital education market.^[21] In May 2018, the International Finance Corporation submitted a petition to the National Company Law Tribunal asking to probe Educomp's alleged 'preferential transactions' after the company filed for bankruptcy.^[22] In June 2021, the State Bank of India filed a criminal complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation accusing former director Rajat Khare of Appin and others of embezzling ₹8.06 billion ($97 million) from loans to Educomp.^[23][24][25] In September 2021, Supreme Court of India rejected Ebix's plea to withdraw its ₹4 billion offer for Educomp.^[26]