Engineering-focused edtech startup Skill-Lync,  said it has acquired Crio, an experiential learning platform for tech careers, in an attempt to enhance its offerings in the higher education space at a time when competition intensifies in the segment amid a downturn in online learning. Skill-Lync said, with this acquisition, Crio will function as an independent brand under the Skill-Lync Group.

In a statement,  Skill-Lync also said the founders of Crio will continue to focus on and run Crio’s business and growth, after the acquisition. The firm, however, did not disclose the deal size.

Founded in 2018 by SuryaNarayanan PaneerSelvam and Sarangarajan V Iyengar, edtech startup Skill-Lync is focused on providing industry-relevant and job-leading courses for Engineering students and graduates across all disciplines. Currently, the enterprise said it helps over 30,000 students from all parts of India with such courses.

“Both Crio and Skill-Lync, were started because we wanted to solve a fundamental issue in higher education, i.e. making  engineers industry relevant… as both companies come together, we believe that we have a unique opportunity to build one of the best higher education platforms where we can provide value at scale,” said PaneerSelvam.

Skill-Lync has raised a total of $20 million in funding. The startup is backed by investors like Y Combinator and Better Capital and also received investment from Flipkart’s Binny Bansal in its latest funding round.

The startups said they are together targeting to support over 25,000 students with relevant job opportunities in the next two to three years, with this acquisition.

“we are really excited to become part of the Skill-Lync Group which shares a similar mission and approach towards learning, looking forward to scaling the impact together!," said Rathinamurthy R, Co-founder, Crio.

Founded in 2018 by Rathinamurthy R and Sridher Jeyachandran, Crio is an experiential learning platform for tech careers. It helps students and professionals to learn practical skills by working on real-world projects. The startup is also backed by Binny Bansal and other former Flipkart employees.

Competition intensifies in Higher edtech space

This comes at a time when its rivals in the upskilling and higher edtech space such as Ronnie Screwvala's upGrad, SoftBank-backed Eruditus, Tiger Global-backed Scaler, and Krishna Kumar’s Simplilearn are witnessing strong growth even as demand for online K-12 (kindergarten to class 12) sector is falling with the reopening of schools, colleges, and tuition centres.