Byju’s, India’s largest online learning platform, has signed a deal to acquire brick and mortar test preparation leader Aakash Educational Services for $1 billion, Bloomberg reported quoting sources.

The contract, one of the biggest ed-tech acquisitions in the world, should enclose within three months, the source said.

The Bangalore-based start-up is valued at $12 billion and has been on a fund-raising spree as the pandemic has sent demand for its online lessons soaring. Byju’s is backed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Tiger Global Management and Bond Capital, co-founded by Silicon Valley investor Mary Meeker.

A Byju’s spokeswoman declined to comment, while emails and calls to New Delhi-based Aakash Educational Services and it’s Chief Executive Officer Aakash Chaudhry did not elicit a response.

Aakash Educational Services, which runs Aakash Institute and is backed by Blackstone Group, has over 200 brick and mortar centres and tutors who teach students so that they could enter into the country’s elite engineering and medical schools. Its student count is over 250,000, according to the official website.

In the deal with Byju’s, Aakash’s founders, the Chaudhry family, will exit completely, while Blackstone will swap a portion of its 37.5% equity in Aakash for Byju’s stake, said the person.

Byju’s, which was founded by Byju Raveendran, launched the smartphone application in 2011. The app caters to over 5 million monthly users, including students from kindergarten to the 12th grade. The app provides lessons in subjects like mathematics and science through video animations and games.

More than 70 million users logged in from over 1,700 cities around the country, Byju’s said last September when it announced a fundraise. Of these, over 4.5 million are paid users. Byju’s is currently targeting doubling its revenues to $1 billion in the current financial year ending in March 2021.