Edtech unicorn Byju’s has raised $800m million from Sumeru Ventures, Vitruvian Partners, and BlackRock in a fresh round of funding, the start-up said in a statement on Friday. Byju Raveendran, founder & CEO of BYJU’S, also participated in the fund-raise with a personal investment of $400 million.
The Bengaluru-based start-up was valued at $22 billion in the current round, making it one of the most valued edtech start-ups in the Asian continent, and the most valued start-up in the Indian start-up ecosystem.
Consecutively, Byju’s is also one of the most funded start-ups in the consumer Internet segment in India, having raised around $4.5 billion in both equity and debt funding to date from top-notch investors.
Recently in October 2021, the edtech start-up raised around $300 million in its series F round led by Oxshott Capital Partners. In June 2021, Byju’s raised $1.5 billion from UBS Group, Abu Dhabi sovereign fund ADQ, and Blackstone Group, among others, at a valuation of $16.5 billion.
Byju’s has also been on an acquisition spree within the country as well as globally. The Bengaluru-based edtech firm also announced the acquisition of online exam preparation platform Gradeup in September. Earlier this year, Byju’s acquired brick-and-mortar test prep service provider Aakash Educational Services in a near $1-billion deal, one of the biggest in the local edtech space.
In July, the company acquired edtech start-up Great Learning in a $600-million deal and spent another $500 million to acquire US-based kids digital reading platform Epic. The firm has spent over $2 billion on acquisitions so far this year, including Indian rival Toppr.
The start-up offers online courses and online programs for students in LKG, UKG, classes 1 -12 (K-12) and for competitive exams like JEE, NEET, CAT and IAS. Currently, it claims to have onboarded more than 150 million consumers on its online learning platform. Recently, the company also entered the offline tuition space through the launch of ‘Byju’s Tuition Centre’ with a target to enroll 1 million students for the programme in the next two years.
“We continue to witness accelerated growth in India and international markets through both organic and inorganic routes. Our sustained focus is on achieving our long term goals around creating life-long value for our learners. For that, we are imagining and reimagining the way students will learn, unlearn and relearn in the future. Our aspiration is to build something that will last for decades,” Byju Raveendran, Founder & CEO, BYJU’S, said in a statement.
“As a leader in the edtech space, BYJU’S strong growth and expansion in national and international markets has been very promising. We look forward to working with BYJU’S as it builds on and accelerates its compelling growth trajectory,” added Mike Risman, Managing Partner of Vitruvian.
