Educomp Solutions Limited (ESL) is an Indian multinationaleducational technology company, headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. Founded in 1994 as a private limited company by Shantanu Prakash [1] it has offices across 18 Indian states besides having overseas presence in Singapore and the United States. The company was popular for its flagship product Educomp Smartclass[2] which once served thousands of schools in India, United States, Canada, Singapore and Sri Lanka[3] before the brand's acquisition by Ebix in 2018.[4][5][6] It was once described as India's largest technology-driven education company by The Economic Times.[7]
History
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.[8] 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.[9] The company launched eCampus and PlanetVidya.com in 1998.[10] 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$2.5million strategic investment from The Carlyle Group.[11] The company entered the India's e-learning market in 2002 by launching LearningMate in partnership with US-based educational technology company Blackboard Inc.[12] In June 2003, it launched Educomp Smartclass,[13] 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.[14] 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.[15] 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.[16] In 2013, the firm signed a memorandum of understanding with Singapore's Raffles Institution.[17] 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.[18] In May 2017, the company filed for insolvency in National Company Law Tribunal.[19] In January 2018, Educomp launched an e-learning platform, SmartclassOnline.[20] In April 2018, Ebix purchased a majority stake of US$8million for Smartclass Educational Services Pvt. Ltd (SESPL),[21][22] thus paving the way for the former to enter India's 30billion dollar digital education market.[23] 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.[24] 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.[25][26][27] In September 2021, Supreme Court of India rejected Ebix's plea to withdraw its ₹4billion offer for Educomp.[28]
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