Byju’s pegs its own valuation at $23 billion
India’s biggest startup Byju’s has just gotten bigger, with the online education platform valuing itself almost $6 billion above its October valuation.
After a string of acquisitions nearly doubled its revenues in a year, the edtech platform is now worth $22.6 billion, up from the October figure of $16.7 billion, two people aware of the development said, citing an internal valuation exercise.
Think and Learn Pvt. Ltd, which operates Byju’s, attributes the higher valuation to revenue that neared ₹10,000 crore in FY22, the people cited above said.
Byju’s is yet to officially announce its financial results for FY22, pending an audit. In FY22, the company made several high-value acquisitions in India, US and Europe, the largest being the $1 billion takeover of Akash Educational Services. Its revenues have grown 250 times from ₹40 crore in fiscal 2015 to touch ₹10,000 crore, a compounded annual growth rate of 125%.
“Byju’s’ valuation has risen by 36% in eight months due to the increasing valuation of Byju’s’ shares by investors because of new revenue channels opening up for the edtech major by virtue of its acquisitions,” one of the two people cited above said on condition of anonymity due to reasons of confidentiality. “Byju’s core business of online educational and tutorial packages are selling fast and the revenues from acquired educational firms are growing steadily. Typically, Byju’s has seen a 25% growth in valuation annually. But the recent acquisitions have bettered the earnings prospect for Byju’s, which is why there is a higher jump in valuation this time,” the person said.
According to an internal valuation note seen by Mint, Byju’s share price rose from $3,800 in October end to $4,750 now, lifting valuation from $16.7 billion in October to $22.6 billion. In October, the company had 43,89,933 shares on a fully diluted basis (which basically incorporates the actual value of all pure equity shares and the convertible preference shares), which has now increased to 47,64,315, as the company sold new shares to investors.
An email sent to a Byju’s spokesperson for comments remained unanswered.
“The sharp rise in share price and valuation are primarily attributed to almost a 100% year-on-year growth in revenues for the full fiscal year 2022 as compared to last fiscal. The revenue is particularly coming from Byju’s core business and the incomes earned by edtechrelated firms acquired by Byju’s worldwide, resulting in higher pricing offers made by investors wanting to put money in Byju’s’ business,” said the first person.
Mint reported on July 5 that Byju’s is in advanced stages of acquiring Maryland- based edtech firm 2U Inc. for close to $2.4 billion in the largest acquisition in this space, for which the edtech major has kicked off a massive fundraising exercise. It has approved a ₹5,547 crore private placement of shares, and separately secured a $2.4 billion acquisition financing commitment from JP Morgan.