Allen Career Institute Private Limited, a leader in India’s test preparation space, appointed former Meta executive Abha Maheshwari as Chief Executive Officer of its digital arm, at a time when competition within test prep edtech intensifies.
In a statement on May 23, the company said Maheshwari will help build Allen’s digital and technology teams in Bengaluru creating digital-first products for enhancing delivery of outcome-based learning to students.
According to the company, Maheshwari previously served as a director and head of commerce and payments, product partnerships for India at Meta in their San Francisco office. She led strategy, product development and execution of commerce platform integrations and scaled it to a global program. Maheshwari brings over 20 years of experience in product management, growth and partnerships in consumer technology, the company added.
"I am thrilled to join Allen at a time when education is being revolutionized through technology interventions. I look forward to building upon Allen's rich academic legacy and scaling access to education through technology-enabled, digital experiences," added Maheshwari.
Maheshwari holds a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay, a Master's in Computer Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an MBA from the Haas School of Business, Berkeley, as per Allen.
"We are excited to have Abha join us to lead our digital initiatives. Her expertise in product management, growth, and partnerships in global consumer technology companies will help bolster our efforts to scale digital-first consumer experience at Allen. Abha's appointment marks Allen’s continued commitment to strengthening its leadership team by bringing in top talent from across the globe," said Nitin Kukreja, who was recently appointed as the CEO of Allen Career Institute.
Allen added that it has made several leadership level hires recently, such as Ankit Khurana as chief product officer and Saurabh Tandon as chief technology officer, in a bid to strengthen its digital arm.
The company has said it plans to scale its technology and product teams in Bengaluru to 200 by the end of the year.
In June last year, the company launched a wholly-owned subsidiary, Allen Digital, to take on the multi-billion dollar edtech companies, a month after raising $600 million (Rs 4,500 crore) from James Murdoch's Bodhi Tree Systems. It had also said the education company to go outside India with the launch of Allen Digital, without specifying the geographies.
The company’s online foray came at a time when many edtech companies launched physical centres as competition heated up in the offline space with Covid-19 restrictions easing in most parts of the country.
