By Salman SH
Edtech unicorn Byju’s has entered the offline tuition space through the launch of ‘Byju’s Tuition Centre’ – a comprehensive programme for students that blends offline and online learning experiences. Byju’s targets to enrol 1 million students for the programme in the next two years.
Byju’s, the most-valued edtech platform in the country, currently has more than 115 million registered learners online. It now plans to invest $200 million in the offline tuition centres, which will be fully owned and operated by the company.
The platform had earlier launched 80 offline centres as part of a pilot programme with plans to open at least 500 new centres across 200 cities this year alone. Available for students in Classes 4-10, Byju’s Tuition Centres will offer tech-enabled physical tuition centres with a focus on engagement and better outcomes through a two-teacher model.
The offline tuition centres will look at standardising teaching methodologies using technology that enables identification of doubt expression, student engagement in class, anytime doubt resolution support, regular tests and practice sessions and frequent parent-teacher meetings, the start-up said in a statement.
“This new offering will redefine the next phase of learning. Byju’s Tuition Centres address the needs of a large segment of parents and students who want a physical element in addition to online teaching support. These tech-enabled physical centres have been designed to offer world class learning and personalised education to unlock a student’s full potential with a focus on engagement and better outcomes,” Mrinal Mohit, chief operating officer, Byju’s said.
Commenting on the launch, Himanshu Bajaj, head of Byju’s Tuition Centre, said owing to the pandemic, students had to oscillate between offline and online learning and the new offline centres operated by Byju’s will address the complex concerns of students and parents across the country. “Byju’s Tuition Centres is the next step in personalised learning. It will offer students a two-teacher model in tech-enabled physical centres, along with teacher-student personal connect supported by analytics led assessment of progress and performance,” Bajaj added.
The planned entry by Byju’s into offline tuition centres comes at a time when the edtech unicorn has been rapidly expanding its business through multiple M&As. To date, the start-up has made around 16 acquisitions totalling over $1 billion. Byju’s expansion into the offline presence has been in the works ever since its billion-dollar acquisition of brick-and-mortar coaching centre Aaakash in April 2021.
With a whopping $21-million valuation after a recent fundraising in December 2021, Byju’s is one of the most valued edtech platforms in the world. To date, it has raised more than $4.5 billion in financing in form of equity and debt from leading investors like DST Global, Tiger Global, Silver Lake, Sequoia Capital, Tencent, Naspers, and others.
Recent reports indicate that Byju’s is currently in talks to go public in the US market at a valuation of $45 billion through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
