With the pandemic accelerating the need for remote learning, the edtech sector has grown at an exponential rate. And India’s Byju’s — the most valued private edtech company globally, is at the front and center of it. The edtech decacorn has now reached even greater heights after raising a fresh ₹2,200 crores ($296 million) as part of a larger round from several investors, according to filings accessed by Tofler.
The round was led by New York-based Oxshott Capital Partners and included participation from Edelweiss, XN Exponent Holdings, Verition Master Fund, MarketX Ventures, Time Capital Advisors, and IIFL.
The latest funding puts Byju’s valuation at $18 billion, an increase from the $16.5 billion it had reached this June to dethrone Paytm as the most valued Indian start-up. According to regulatory filings, the Bengaluru-headquartered Byju’s approved the allotment of 77,174 Series F preference shares at an issue price of ₹285,072 per share to raise ₹2200 crores.
Once the larger financing round is completed, Byju’s valuation may exceed $21 billion. The start-up has been reaching new heights ever since the pandemic struck, and has grown at an unprecedented rate. This has helped the firm raise record amounts of capital (it has raised over $1.8 billion since the beginning of the pandemic) and expand to international markets as well.
The decacorn’s “acquisition spree” has also made the headlines on several occasions – it has acquired several names such as coding platform Tynker, online exam prep start-up Gradeup, upskilling platform Great Learning, and after-school learning Toppr, reading platform Epic, coding platform WhiteHat Jr., and Aakash. The mergers and acquisitions have cost Byju’s millions (nearly a billion, in the case of Aakash), but it has also enabled it to be the leading edtech start-up in the world, and according to Byju’s co-founder and CEO Byju Raveendran, more mergers and acquisitions are on the cards.
Its international growth has not come at the cost of forgetting its roots – Byju’s has also teamed up with NITI Aayog to roll out free access to learning resources across no less than 112 districts.
The start-up is also mulling over an IPO, and according to reports, it may file for one in the near future and go public at a valuation of $40 to $50 billion. If Byju’s goes public, it will join a list of several Indian firms that have gone public in recent times, Zomato being the most spectacular of them.
