Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas has advised Indian online learning platform Byju’s on its $1 billion acquisition of Blackstone-backed Indian tutor Aakash Educational Services, which was represented by Khaitan & Co. Trilegal counselled Blackstone.

Aakash Educational Services, founded in 1998, runs Aakash Institute, a chain of coaching centres that trains students for engineering and medical entrance exams.

Crunchbase reported that the purchase follows a spate of large fundraising rounds for Byju’s, which has pulled in over a billion dollars in the past year from multiple investors.

The SAM team was led by partners Amit Khansaheb, Roshan Thomas, Prateek Lala, Mukul Baveja, Arjun K. Perikal and Aparna Mehra.

Meanwhile, partners Bharat Anand, Nidhi Killawala, Manas Kumar Chaudhuri, Pranjal Prateek, Atul Pandey, Shailendra Bhandare and Anshul Prakash led the Khaitan team.

To contact the editorial team, please email ALBEditor@thomsonreuters.com.