Kota Has Waned. Can Allen Reinvent Itself?

The company is venturing into schooling and higher education while trying to gain a foothold in digital education

- Mansi Verma

In 2019, Allen Career Institute stood at the heart of Kota's coaching machine.

Seventeen buildings brimmed with about 130,000 students-out of 200,000 in the city.

Founded by Rajesh Maheshwari in 1988, in a rented room in Vallabh Bari area of this Rajasthan city, the education empire boomed, and Kota itself became synonymous with India's test preparation (test-prep) dream.

The pandemic in 2020 broke that rhythm. Enrollments crashed to nearly a quarter, revenues tumbled, and rivals poached faculty. Yet by 2021-22, pent-up demand pulled students back, and Allen's footfalls once again crossed 100,000. To many, the Kota fortress looked steady again.

Bodhi Tree, a fund with a reputation for picking winners, poured a staggering $600 million into Allen in 2022.

But beneath the surface, the test-prep order had shifted. In June 2024, Nitin Kukreja, Allen's CEO, told the faculty that enrollments in Kota had once again plunged, from 131,000 the year before to just 81,000 in 2024, a nearly 40% drop, Mint had reported back then.

Online upstarts, hybrid models, restless teachers, and a city scarred by rising student suicides were eroding the very foundation of Kota's dominance-and with it, the crown jewel of Allen Career Institute.

Today, the company is at a crossroads, compelled to chart a new path beyond its hallowed test-prep halls.

Under the leadership of Kukreja, the former Star Sports CEO, the company has been attempting a transformation over the last three years-from brick and mortar coaching centres to an education conglomerate with a strong digital backbone.

But that dream has been riddled with challenges. Slow growth, a flurry of toplevel exits, and a lacklustre digital adoption rate have raised a fundamental question: Can Allen reinvent itself, or will it be a casualty of the very digital wave it is trying to ride?

OUT-OF-KOTA STRATEGY