Accenture will acquire California-headquartered edtech platform, Udacity, for an undisclosed sum. The move is part of Accenture’s broader initiative to invest $1 billion over three years in enhancing upskilling opportunities for its clients.
Accenture also unveiled its upskilling platform, LearnVantage, on Tuesday to rope in clients that require technology learning and training services in technology, data, and artificial intelligence (AI).
This acquisition and launch of LearnVantage platform come at a time when the demand for upskilling, particularly in the generative AI sector, is becoming increasingly prevalent across IT services industry globally. This could mean a sizeable business for the world’s top software outsourcing firms.
More than 230 professionals of Udacity will join Accenture’s team, the latter said in a statement on Wednesday. “The acquisition will bring to Accenture Udacity’s capabilities in integrating proprietary content, expert services, and scalable learning technology while bridging the gap between online education and workplace relevance,” Accenture said.
Udacity, founded by Sebastian Thrun in 2011, provides job-ready certified skills. It attained unicorn status in 2015 after a $105 million Series D funding round. It offers programmes on AI and machine learning, 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 firm 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 aftermath of the downturn in the world’s top edtech firm, Byju’s.
The drop in Udacity’s valuation reflects the edtech industry’s overall health as well. “How Byju’s crash affected the overall edtech industry depends on the stage each company is at, and where in edtech it caters to. Edtech in India and China are not looking good these days. China had their policy changes, and India has had challenges, too,” said Jeff Maggioncalda, chief executive of Coursera, in an interview with Mint on 14 January.
“From during the covid-19 pandemic and now, financing went from as much money as one could ask for at incredibly high valuation, to much higher conservatism. No investor will presently invest in local content firms—the language is no longer a differentiator, nor is content domain expertise. New startups have no distribution, making this one of the worst segments to be in—especially in edtech’s parlance,” Maggioncalda added.