Kota-based test-prep institute Allen has acquired doubt-solving edtech platform Doubtnut.

The acquisition, first reported by Entrackr, seems like a stress sale for $10 million or Rs 83 crore, TechCrunch and Entrackr reported on Monday.

The stress sale seemed to be the best option for the cash-strapped edtech startup, which has been struggling to raise money for a while. Seven-year-old Doubtnut gained popularity owing to its use of AI and image recognition software that helped students solve questions by uploading photos of them. It also allowed students to access learning and solutions in local languages, a unique approach amid largely English-driven learning apps.

Backed by Peak XV Partners and James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems, Doubtnut had raised $50 million in funding. It was a small company built on the passion and determination of its co-founders Tanushree Nagori and Aditya Shankar. It was so determined that it survived an acquisition scare and resisted a $150 million offer from Byju’s back in 2020. (Read our story on the business and resurgence of Doubtnut here.) But those were different times.

“Tanushree and Aditya are bright people and their product is very interesting, but it couldn’t find enough paying customers to keep going,” says a person in the know, requesting anonymity. “Doubt-solving is an essential component of edtech but doesn’t necessarily lend itself to a business model on a standalone basis. No one has been able to make a company just on the back of doubt-solving.”

In its statement, Allen said that Doubtnut’s team will join the Kota-based company “to build a world-class doubts platform of the future”.

“Timely and effective resolution of doubts is a core consumer need in education. Doubtnut’s platform will allow us to greatly enhance the learning experience for our students. We are also excited by the prospects of offering ALLEN’s high quality academic products to a wider audience,” Allen CEO Nitin Kukreja said.

It is also interesting to note that both Allen and Doubtnut have James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems as an investor, directly or indirectly. The New York-based venture capital firm invested around $30 million in Doubtnut in early 2021. About 15 months later, Bodhi Tree Systems, a joint venture between Lupa Systems and Uday Shankar—former Asia-Pacific president of Disney and former chairman of Star and Disney India—invested $600 million in Allen, valuing the business at about $1.5 billion at the time. The firm has since been trying to ramp up its digital presence. In May, it appointed Meta’s Abha Maheswari as its CEO.

Byju’s makes headlines again: On the topic of edtech, reports on Monday said that the National Companies Law Tribunal has granted Byju’s two weeks to file its reply and another week for the BCCI to file its rejoinder in the ongoing dispute between India’s cricket board and the country’s largest edtech company. The next hearing is scheduled for 22 December.

The BCCI had approached the NCLT seeking to initiate insolvency proceedings for the non-payment of dues by the edtech company in a jersey sponsorship deal, which we first reported on 28 November. Byju’s had then said it was in discussions with BCCI to settle the matter.

The company has also called for an annual general meeting on 20 December, Moneycontrol reported. Among other things, Byju’s could discuss approving the much-awaited audited earnings of fiscal 2021-22 with the board.

Separately, Bloomberg reported that founder Byju Raveendran had pledged some of the houses owned by him and his family members to borrow $12 million (around Rs 100 crore) to pay salaries. On Saturday, several reports said that the company did not pay November salaries to a section of employees. On Monday, we wrote how Byju’s, once the poster child of Indian startup dreams, was facing its worst cash crunch ever and could be inching towards a potential bankruptcy.

Read our complete coverage of Byju’s here.

(With inputs from Pradip K Saha)