CL Educate Limited, an ed-tech company and owner of Career Launcher and Kestone, announced that it has increased its stake in 361 Degree Minds (361DM) from 11.72% to 38.92% through a Rights Issue. CL Educate and 361DM management also announced that S. Sadagopan, founding director of IIIT Bangalore and formerly with IIT Kanpur and IIM Bangalore will join the board as the non-executive chairman and guide her into the future, said the press release from the company.
361 Degree Minds, an aggregator of online degrees, has forged tie-ups with a few leading Universities in India including Jain University, SRM University, Manipal University, among others, it added.
Founded and run by BITS Pilani alumni, the company is a Digital twin enabler and the OPM (online program management) partner for the universities and aids them in their curriculum adoption, outreach, enrolment and delivery processes.
At present, India has around 40 million learners of which about 4 million learners are in online and distance learning programmes. However, India’s GER is still only 29%, that is about 40 million students on a base of 135 million youngsters are in higher education programs and is expected to touch 50% in over a decade, which would translate to 80 million students enrolled in multiple programs, with many also allowed to pursue dual degrees – online and offline simultaneously.
“This is a decadal opportunity that will transform higher education and will also take Indian higher education to other parts of the world,” Satya Narayanan R, Chairman, CL Educate, said. “I am also delighted to share that Prof. Sadagopan has accepted our invitation to join us as the non-executive Chairman of 361DM. His experience, wisdom and technology thinking will be a great blessing for 361DM to scale unprecedented heights”.
Also joining the 361DM board is CL Educate board member Piyush Sharma (Ph.D.), a professor at Curtin Business School, Curtin University, Australia and an authority in internationalisation of higher education.
“This is a sort of homecoming for us, as CL Educate is already an investor in our company. CL Educate brand, network and experience would enable us to accelerate our growth under the guidance of Prof Sadagopan,” P Ram Mohan, Director, 361 Degree Minds, said.