Byju’s in talks to raise over $150 million
Online education startup Byju’s is in talks with new and existing investors to raise fresh funds of more than $150 million at a valuation of $1.8-2 billion, according to three people aware of the discussions.
Byju’s (Think and Learn Pvt. Ltd) is in talks with at least two new investors and existing investors led by Tencent Holdings to participate in the latest round, said the people mentioned above. All three of them requested anonymity as these talks are confidential.
India’s largest ed tech firm is seeking a valuation of $1.8-2 billion in its latest round, up from its previous-round valuation of roughly $1 billion, the people cited above said. In July last year, Byju’s had raised about $40 million from Tencent, months after it raised $30 million from Verlinvest.
Since starting out in 2008, Byju’s has raised more than $240 million from Tencent, Verlinvest, Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Aarin Capital and others.
Byju’s has exceeded investor expectations over the past three years. It started out as an offline teaching centre in Bengaluru. Its founder Byju Raveendran travelled to Bengaluru and other cities giving lectures and classes to students preparing for the Common Admission Test, which opens the doors to India’s top management institutes.
In 2015, the company launched an app that vastly increased its audience. Byju’s currently offers two separate learning apps—its flagship learning app caters to students from class 6 to 12, while its other app targets students in classes 4 and 5. The online education start-up also plans to launch a separate new app for younger students soon.
The pivot to a digital education platform has been lucrative for the company. In June, Byju’s said that it touched Rs.100 crore in monthly revenue and it raised its annual revenue target for this year to ₹1,400 crore.
Mint reported in June Byju’s has been growing at 100% annually consistently for the past three years. The company claims it is one of the few Indian unicorns that has become profitable though that couldn’t be independently verified.
The rapid rise of Byju’s comes at a time when the ed tech startups is seeing a revival in investor interest. Unacademy, which is operated by Sorting Hat Technologies Pvt. Ltd, said on Monday that it raised $21 million from Sequoia Capital, SAIF Partners and others, barely 10 months after it closed its previous round.
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