The renowned ed-tech company, Byju’s is one of the largest online learning platforms in the world right now. It is the second most valuable company to come out of India’s burgeoning startup culture, second only to Paytm. Its growth trajectory was already pretty phenomenal, but after last year and the boost to remote learning that COVID 19 brought, it has reached new heights. In 2020, Byju’s raised more than a billion dollars, but it seems like its fundraising efforts are far from over.
According to a report by TechCrunch, the company is in last stage talks with several investors, (which includes new ones from the U.S and the Middle East) to raise more than $600 million this quarter.
This round will value the ed-tech startup at $15 billion, up from $11 billion during last year’s multimillion dollar fundraise.
While last year, Byju’s had acquired the popular coding platform, Whitehat Jr.; and the U.S based firm Osmo in 2019, the firm is far from content, and is looking to expand its product by making more acquisitions.
Multiple reports have claimed that Byju’s is trying its best to acquire the prestigious Engineering and Mathematical Institute, Aakash. While Aakash is a physical institute currently, the pandemic has made Byju’s consider adding it to their ever-growing online courses and has been in talks with the institute for the same since January. If this goes through, the deal which is estimated to be valued anywhere from $700 million to even $1 billion, would be one of the biggest deals to have ever happened in the educational space. Apart from Aakash, Byju’s has also reportedly been in talks with Toppr since quite a few months and might be looking to acquire the firm too. According to sources, the company may close the Toppr deal at around $150 million.
Moreover, the report from TC claims that Byju’s in talks with another US based company, looking for an acquisition.
So many acquisitions, back to back, requires a large amount of funds, and thus, it’s not surprising that the startup is looking to raise more than half a billion dollars once again.
Currently Byju’s has over 80 million users, out of which 5.5 million have taken up paid subscriptions. These users belong to over 1700 cities across India. While Byju’s had nearly double its revenue in FY20, going from Rs.1430 crores to Rs.2800 crores; it also faces several tough competitors in India like Vedantu, Unacademy and Khan Academy.
