Popular e-learning platform Byju’s seems to be on a roll. After securing a massive $50 million investment led by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the company has bagged even more funds for its ed-tech venture. This funding round sees International Finance Corp. (IFC), a member of the World Bank, invest an undisclosed amount in the company.
As the year 2016 comes to an end, Byju’s can surely be seen as one of the most aggressively scaling and well-funded startups in the education sector. In addition to CZI, the company’s previous funding round saw participation from existing backers including Sequoia Capital, Sofina, Lightspeed Ventures and Times Internet Ltd. This year, the total investment into Byju’s now stands at a whopping$140 million.
IFC, for those unaware, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector in developing countries. It is recognized to mobilize its assets into third-party services and has now picked up a minority stake in Byju’s to fund the expansion of its tech and education services. The investor is also looking to potentially drive inorganic growth (marketing) opportunities for the company.
Commenting on their investment, Ruchira Shukla, regional lead, venture capital investments at IFC, says,
IFC’s venture capital strategy in the education technology space is focused on technology-enabled learning platforms for academic improvement, skill development platforms as well as supplemental andlow cost education solutions.
BYJU’s is the market leader in the 4–12 segment, offering engaging content and building concept clarity by identifying and addressing students’ learning gaps.
This capital infusion into the company will enable it to drive more investments into their global expansion plans, especially the U.S and UK. Byju’s also plans to invest a chunk of capital in the development of courses, technology, and other offerings in India as well as international markets. Talking about the inflow of more funds, Byju Raveendran, CEO of Byju’s, says,
The investment from IFCrecognises our commitment to create world-class learning programs that will make learning accessible for students across geographies. We expect them to be good partners for our international expansion. We have been talking to them for some time.
Headquartered in Bengaluru, Byju’s was founded by teacher turned entrepreneur Byju Raveendran in 2015. And within a year of its launch, the company has witnessed over 7 million downloads for its educational app. The platform has managed to amass nearly 330k annual paid subscribers, who’re spending an average of 40 minutes per day. It has seen a return subscription rate of over 90 percent, with 30,000 new students signing up for the app every single month.
Continuing to talk about the growth of the platform, Raveendran adds,
Today, almost 70% of our users come from outside the top 10 cities. It is encouraging to see increased adoption from 1700-plus towns and cities in the country, but there is still a long way to go before we call this a learning revolution.
The primary aim which drives Raveendran is the ambitious dream of making quality education accessible to student across the globe. Being one of the most well-capitalized startups, Byju’s is now seeing a MoM growth of 15 per cent, with revenues to the north of $18 million. The total amount of funds raised by the company include $9 million in Series A led by Aarin Capital, followed closely by $25 million in Series B from Sequoia Capital, which were raised last year.
