Build a new Edutech platform to reach 3 mn online students

Allen Digital
Strategic partnership between Allen (iconic brand in Education) and Marigold
Partners (creators of HotStar) to build a new Edutech consumer internet startup.

Marigold Partners leading this initiative laying the foundation of strong

technology product and culture from their experience of building HotStar
ALLEN at a Glance

Ventures

Glory

● 150+ Centres ● 4000+ Teachers ● 3L Active Students

● 50+ Cities ● 80+ Courses ● 2500+ Cr Revenue
(JEE MAIN , JEE Advanced,
● Strong profits
NEET-UG, Grade VI - X)
BODHI TREE / MARIGOLD PARK at a Glance

Vision
Leverage technology to create disruptive and transformational solutions for millions in Education & Media

Founders

James Murdoch Uday Shankar

● Independent director on the board of Tesla.
st
● Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of 21 Century Fox from
2015 to 2019.
● Chairman and CEO of Sky plc, Europe and Asia, News
International, Sky Italia, Sky Deutschland, and STAR
TV
● Under his leadership, Star launched Hotstar – now
Disney+ Hotstar – one of the most successful consumer
internet globally.
● Ex- CEO of Star India, 2004 to 2021
● Ex-President of Walt Disney Asia Pacific.
BODHI TREE / MARIGOLD PARK Investments

Education Investment
● Vision: Build EdTech platform to apply technology much deeper into the
student journey than current market offerings
● Rs 4,500 crore in strategic partnership with Allen Career Institute to
build the largest online consumer education technology company

● Build ALLEN Digital brand to scale to 3 mn students

Media Investment
● Vision: JioCinema app the streaming destination for live sports

● Rs 13,500 crore in broadcaster Viacom18 as part in partnership with

billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance

● JioCinema - official broadcaster of 2022 FIFA World Cup

● JioCinema - official digital streaming partner of IPL till 2027

ALLEN Digital

Vision: Edutech platform to reach 3 mn online students ● Strong academic expertise to

build and
● Unmatched teacher base with a

ALLEN strong supply chain to develop

quality teachers
● Holistic development approach
Strong Foundation of Teaching and care for students
+
Leaders with proven success in
Consumer Digital space
+
Experienced Product and Technology
Team

Marigold Technology
Park Team
● Consumer internet DNA ● Experience team in
(success of HotStar) solving consumer
● Investment to scale up the problems at scale
consumer internet ● Passion for
business transforming Education
in India
Technology leadership at ALLEN Digital
Saurabh Tandon
Chief Technology Officer
● Saurabh carries 20+ years of experience in
the Consumer Internet and Enterprise
software Industry.
● He was associated with Flipkart for more
than 8 years and worked on building
engineering team for their Catalog, OMS,
Customer Experience, Payments and
Fintech Groups.
Ankit Khurana
Chief Product Officer
● Ankit carries 15 years the Industry experience and has
vast experience in Product Management.
● He was associated with Flipkart for more than 10 years
across multiple domains in Ecommerce.
● He has built multiple consumer products and platforms
including Catalog, Retail, Pricing and Promotions,
Growth,Engagement and Retention, Product Exchange
and more.
 Team Introduction
Shashank Shah (ex-Flipkart)
Product Director
Shashank carries more than a
decade of experience in Product
Management. Previously
associated with Flipkart for long
time building Supply Chain
Management products for them.
Raikva Gandhi (ex-Cult)
Staff Engineer
Raikva has 8+ years of experience in
Software Development. Previously
associated with companies like Cure.fit
& Flipkart for their Android & Web
development.
Gopi K (ex-Dream 11)
Product Analytics Director
Gopi carries more than a decade
experience in Analytics &
Decision Science. Previously
associated with companies like
CoinDCX, Dream11, Ola and
Myntra.
Akhilesh Chaudhary (ex-Flipkart)
Staff Engineer
Akhilesh has 7+years of experience
in Software Development. He was
previously associated with
Flipkart Wholesale.
Neelam Gulrajani (ex-Cult)
Design - Associate Director
Neelam has 8+ years of
experience in Design.
Previously associated with
companies like Cure.fit and
Housing.com.
Pankaj Kumar (ex-Vedantu)
Software Engineer
Pankaj has 5 years of experience in
Software Development. He was
previously associated with
Vedantu.
Ankur Joshi (ex-Flipkart)
Group Product Manager
Ankur has 7 years of experience
in Product Management.
Previously associated with
companies like Flipkart, 1mg
and PayU.
Anjali Arora (ex-Unacademy)
Associate Product Manager
Anjali has 2 years of experience in
Product Management. She was
previously associated with
Unacademy.
Reuben John (ex-Byju’s)
Senior Product Manager
Reuben has 7 years of
experience in the Industry.
Previously associated with
companies like OSMO, Byju’s
and EY.
Disha Jain (ex-Byju’s)
Product Manager
Disha has 2 years of experience in
Product Management. Previously
associated with Byju’s for
developing their B2C product.
 Team Introduction

Rajnish Kumar (ex-Cred)
Engineering Manager
Rajnish has more than a decade
of experience in software
development. Previously
associated with Cred and
Flipkart for a long time.
Komal Kushwaha (ex-Udaan)
Staff Engineer
Komal has more than 7 years of
experience in software
development, and she was One
of the early members of
technology and product group
at udaan
Kamesh Rao (ex-Google)
Principal Engineer
Kamesh has more than 17 years
of experience in software
development. Previously
associated with companies like
Google, Uber, Flipkart and
Amazon
Nikhil Patil (ex-Flipkart)
Staff Engineer
Nikhil has 9 years of experience
in software development.
Previously associated with
Flipkart for 9 years.
Naveen Goyal (ex-Amazon)
Senior Software Engineer
Naveen has 6 years of in
software development. .
Previously associated with
Amazon.

Mayuri Kharde (ex-Myntra) Aryan Kumar (ex-Amazon)

Senior Software Engineer
Mayuri has 5 years of experience in
software development. She was
previously associated with
Myntra-Supply chain team
Software Engineer - 2
Aryan Kumar has 4 years of
experience in software
Development. Previously
associated with Amazon and
Samsung.
FAQs

What are the core challenges to be solved?

- Building LMS on the strong Allen pedagogy, personalised for each student's pace of learning
- Building an education knowledge graph across subjects
- Delivery of content (Live classes, recorded content - across multiple media - video/audio/text) in a secure way
- Products across a student's learning journey of Learn, practice, and doubt resolution
- Be the teaching assistance
- Deliver across multiple personas (Teachers, Students, Parents) across Desktop, Mobile, Tablet experiences

How is ALLEN planning to disrupt the online EdTech sector?

We are building products and aiming to solve core problems of education sectors, like supply of best teachers, excellent content and result-driven
pedagogy. Our current strength of 300k students provides us with an excellent opportunity to experiment and scale it to 10x times in consumer
internet.

What is the immediate roadmap?

The immediate priority is to build and launch a new platform. Establish the success factors for students key learning journey and building the rails
for the innovation engine to continuously deliver innovation and value.

What is the plan for ALLEN Digital ramp up?

Currently, we are ‘teeny’ team and planning to grow over a 75+ members in next 4-5 months

What are the strengths of ALLEN?

ALLEN's strength is its brand and high recall among the students community. We launched our Digital venture in Apr'22 and 12-15k students. The
next step is to build a performant & scalable platform to reach to millions of students in online.

What will be the culture at ALLEN Digital ?

Allen Digital technology team comprise of team members coming from various internet companies - Flipkart, Vedantu, Dream 11, Cult, Unacademy
etc.. The micro teams are owning their individual goals and driving initiatives towards it. They are accountable and responsible for the technology
choices, the innovation in customer journey and developing a world-beating platform to meet their goals.
Relevant Articles

● https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/business-of-brands/uday-shankar-james-murdochs-bod
hi-tree-to-buy-strategic-stake-in-allen-career-for-usd-600-mn/91248468

● https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/corporate/story/uday-shankar-james-murdochs-bodhi-tree-systems-to-inves
t-rs-13500-cr-in-viacom18-331521-2022-04-27

● https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/lupa-uday-shankar-enter-into-a-strategic-partnership-to-
form-bodhi-tree-122020901837_1.html

● https://mediabrief.com/bodhi-tree-to-invest-600mn-in-allen/

● https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/venture-firm-bodhi-tree-systems-to-invest-rs-13%20500-crore-in-viac
om18/2505940/