A Cloud Guru (ACG) – an online cloud learning platform – has reached a deal to be acquired by US-based Pluralsight, the companies announced on Wednesday. The terms of the agreement are yet to be disclosed.
The deal is likely to better position the combined company to meet the growing demand for cloud skill development using its massive cloud computing training catalogue.
Aaron Skonnard, CEO of Pluralsight, believes that the acquisition will help the company further expand its customer base. “With the acquisition of A Cloud Guru, we can now provide an all-in-one solution to accelerate the cloud skill development journey for large enterprise customers and individual learners,” he said.
In December last year, Private firm Vista Equity purchased Pluralsight in a take-private deal that valued the company at over US$3.5 billion. At present, Pluralsight provides customised courses on topics such as cloud, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to IT professionals.
“I am excited by the next phase of our mission in which, together, we will build the next-generation platform for hands-on learning across all of the technology,” Sam Kroonenburg, Co-founder and CEO of ACG said.
“ACG and Pluralsight were founded to solve the same problem—closing the technology skills gap by democratizing access to technical education. Within our shared missions, we’ve taken different but complementary approaches.”
Boston-based Elephant Venture Capital first invested in ACG as part of its series A round. ACG secured further funding from Summit and AirTree. The company was most recently backed by Bain Capital’s Tech opportunity fund, which helped ACG acquire Linux Academy in December 2019.
Six-year-old ACG is a Software as a service (SaaS) platform that provides cloud computing courses and training. It offers more than 360 certification courses, including IoT, containers, and DevOps. So far, ACG boasts over 2.5 million individuals and over 4500 organisations on its platform.
Edtech on the Rise
The demand for cloud computing courses is on an exponential rise, with large enterprises worldwide trying to get in on the action. The COVID-19 pandemic has already boosted the ed-tech sector globally. Many IT decision-makers believe that the shortage of cloud skills poses a significant challenge to the tech industry.
According to an Australian trade and investment commission report, Australia’s edtech sector is expected to reach $341 billion by 2025. 42% of edtech organisations are focused on schools in Australia. This is followed by almost 23% in the higher education sector. 18% are focused on edtech at the workplace, followed by vocational at 17%. There are around 600 edtech companies with a workforce of almost 13,000 in Australia.
Meanwhile, a recent Market Study Report shows that the global education technology market size is likely to hit US$318.8 billion by the year 2027.
The acquisition is likely to close later this year, subject to conditions.
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