BYJU’S UPDATES LEARNING APP, TARGETS PROFIT IN CURRENT FISCAL

Education technology start-up Byju’s (Think and learn Pvt. Ltd) has updated its app to incorporate a personalised learning approach that will serve content based on the student’s aptitude and grasping ability, even as the company aims to turn profitable in the current fiscal.

“We have created unique learn journeys for students that will offer them a completely personalised experience. We are able to build an extensive learning profile for every student,” said Byju’s chief product officer Ranjit Radhakrishnan.

Personalisation is a theme long pursued by consumer Internet companies, especially e-tailers, who offer consumers a bouquet of choices to pick from based on their past shopping or browsing history. This in turn increases a consumer’s engagement on the platform.

Byju’s was launched in 2011 by Byju Raveendran as an offline tutorial and launched an app in August 2015. The company claims to have about 8 million app downloads and more than 400,000 paid consumers.

“In this upgrade, we have personalised the app interface to determine every student’s capability and recommend the right ‘learn journey’,” Raveendran said. The company on Tuesday launched a separate parent connect app that will help parents monitor their child’s progress.

Raveendran claimed that Byju’s clocked about ₹260 crore in revenue last fiscal and will turn profitable in fiscal 2017-18.

“We will soon become a profitable unicorn,” said Raveendran.

The company was valued at $600-650 million during its last fundraise, a $30-million round from VerlInvest, a Brusselsbased family firm.