IFC to pick up minority stake in BYJU
World Bank arm to invest $15 million in educational products company
Sequoia Capital, Times Internet and other VCs-backed Think & Learn Private Limited (BYJU) will raise $15 million from International Finance Corporation (IFC). Bengalurubased BYJU offers its educational products in over 100 cities across India and parts of West Asia.
IFC will invest up to $15 million as part of BYJU’s ongoing fundraising round, with additional capital being provided by existing and other new investors. The company was founded in 2011 by Byju Raveendran with Riju Ravindran and Divya Gokulnath as other two partners. Its other investors include Sequoia Capital, Sofina, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Times Internet, and Aarin Capital.
IFC’s investment, for a minority stake in BYJU, will fund the company’s expansion plan in the education services space, further technology development and potential inorganic growth opportunities.
The company also aims to use its strong technology platform to make a foray into international markets to provide K-12 educational content, bringing in revenues from the export of educational services.
IFC said given the overall shortage of quality teachers available for students in most emerging markets, BYJU will use disruptive technology to enable easy access of quality education for K-12 students.
Currently, more than 43 per cent of students on BYJU’s platform are from outside India’s top-10 cities. This is expected to increase to 60 per cent of sales over the next five years. With this fundraising, the company intends to expand coverage of its curriculum to include several subjects and grades.
The company’s education app was downloaded by more than 4.5 million users in less than 10 months since its launch. This is expected to grow rapidly in the next few years of operations and potentially exceed 15 million by 2021 if the necessary capital is available for expansion efforts.
The company employs around 800 in its direct operations. It intends to keep growing its business and is expected to increase its work force four times by 2020.