Byju’s funding juggernaut looks in no mood to stop. The company is back in news for a fresh multi-million funding round that it has supposedly got its hands on. The ed-tech behemoth has raised $200 million in its latest funding round from existing investor General Atlantic, the company said on Friday.
While the number did not come from the company itself, a source cited by TechCrunch states that the New York based equity firm wrote a $200 million cheque to the India based edtech startup. This follows from a similar $200 million that the company had earlier raised from yet another existing investor, Tiger Global in January this year. In 2018, General Atlantic pumped in around ₹410 crore for a 3.85% stake in the company, according to data sourced from business information platform Paper.vc.
Clearly, this massive money pouring comes on the heels of the startup claiming to be profitable. If that is the case, we can expect more money to come into the company, as investors would want to cash in on the company as and when it goes for an IPO.
Before the funding round began, Byju’s declared that it has indeed become profitable and was thus able to justify the valuation of $8 billion for the round. Byju’s company reported a net income of ₹20.16 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2019. The valuation makes it the third most valuable startup coming from the subcontinent, second only to Paytm at $16 billion and Oyo at $10 billion.
Byju’s founder and CEO Byju Raveendran said in prepared statement, “We are happy to see an ever increasing acceptance for our learning programmes in small towns across the country. Today, over 65% of our students are from outside the top 10 cities. This is a validation of how technology can make high-quality learning content more accessible to students, irrespective of their geographies.”
Byju’s has amassed a user base of 42 million registered users, 3 million of whom are paid subscribers, thanks to its functionalities and the ability of teachers on the platform to relate difficult theoretical concepts to real world practical applications.
The app started in 2011, a time when smartphones in the Indian market were scarce and data rates too high for the average Joe. Over time, with the advent of budget friendly phones and one of the cheapest data prices in the world, the startup grew to become an industry disrupt-er. Now, finance firms all over the world see the potential in the platform and want to put their chips in.
Byju’s has raised about $1.45 billion to date, including the two $200 million apiece rounds this year. It also counts Tencent, and Naspers among its investors.
What’s left to see is how the eccentric CEO, Byju Raveendran, makes use of this investment and make Byju’s into an even bigger name than it already is.
