Khetal Advisors help SimpliLearn acquire MarketMotive

1. with
Crossing The Boundaries

2. About SimpliLearn
SimpliLearn is a leading provider of online “certification training programs”
across Project Management, Quality, Big Data and Programming. They sell their courses
across the world via online channels and have strong operations team in India
Certification Courses via Online Channels
2

3. For this the company decided to:
• Enter the US Market and acquire Corporate Customers for their
eLearning curriculum
• Acquire eLearning courseware in complementary areas of certification
like Networking, Digital Marketing, Microsoft certification courses etc.
US
Presence
Corporate
Business
Complementary
Courses
SimpliLearn a fast growing company wanted to grow faster by expanding its geographical
presence and widening its course curriculum
Fast growing company wanted a Faster Growth
3

4. Krishna Kumar
CEO
“ We need a good company with great culture and should be highly
complementary to our business. I would like the founder to stick around
and help the combined entity grow exponentially. ”
Ganesh Subramanian
CFO
“ We should acquire a profitable, Clean & Compliant and a growing firm
that is easy to integrate with our existing business. ”
Board
“ We need all of above as of yesterday ”
Key Stakeholders & their Requirement
4

5. Project Take-Off
Shortlist
Based on key metrics
126 companies were shortlisted
and reached-out
126
Shortlisted
Reach-Out
Dialogue was initiated with 30
companies and the results
were taken over to the CEO
30
Showed Interest
Web Search
3rd Party
SourcesLinkedIn
Research
A Database of 400+ companies
across content categories was
created
400+
Firms Identified
5

6. Deep Dive
SimpliLearn Team had a
detailed call with 9 shortlisted
companies
9
Telephonic Calls
After internal discussion with the
board 7 companies were
identified for a f2f meeting
7
Meetings In-Person
On-spot offers were given to 4
companies after exploring in-depth
fitment, valuation and deal structure
4
On-spot Offers
6

7. From Hiccups till Closure
7
Term Sheet with Backup
While term sheet was issued to
one company the other company
was engaged in regular dialogues
2
Targets Identified
Due Diligence & Red Flags
1/1
Setback/Bounce Back
Within 3 weeks of due-diligence red
flags were raised and the target was
dropped. Overnight term sheet was
issued to the second target
acquired
Within 5 weeks after issuance of the
term sheet, the transaction with
MarketMotive was consummated
successfully
1
Acquired

8. US Presence
B2B Business
Complementary
Course Catalog
• US Presence, B2B business and a Set of
complementary Courses; SimpliLearn has got
all that it wanted through an acquisition
• In less than a month from the transaction;
Market Motive has seen a 20% growth in
revenues due to expanded distribution of
SimpliLearn
Key Synergies
8

9. Krishna Kumar
CEO
“ With MarketMotive we’ve got a great partner and we should see strong
growth in next six months. Lets do another one as soon as we close the
integration ”
Ganesh Subramanian
CFO
“ I've done three M&As in the past. This was the quickest one from DD to
closure and the team @ Khetal did a good job of maintaining high intensity
and helped maintain transparency both sides, throughout the process. ”
Board
“ Well done. When are we closing the next one ? ”
Comments from Key Stakeholders
9

10. Key Takeaways
M&A is a great way to expedite
growth. If done right…..
M&A needs to run as a process to get
the right company at right price
Always have backups
Things get messy and you don’t know
unless you are deep in DD
Have a responsive DD team
and ensure their availability during
weekends
10

11. About Us
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Khetal Advisors, is a boutique Investment Bank helping early stage and late stage companies in
India & USA. We exclusively cater to the technology sector and offer fund raising and transaction
advisory services
acquisition of acquisition of majority acquisition of
some of the M&A transactions we advised in the recent past:

12. Contact Us
12
Kunal Walia
Managing Partner
Former Director-Equities for Duke Equity Partners (part of USD 150 million
Duke Special Opportunities Fund) and founder of Artemis Technologies
E-mail: kwalia@khetal.com
Shashwat Kumar
Partner
Founder of TechUnified, a software services & product company which was
acquired for USD 12.5 million in early 2007
E-mail: skumar@khetal.com