According to a source familiar with the situation, India’s online education startup Byju’s is raising approximately $1 billion from new investors such as B Capital Group, founded by former Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin, Baron Funds, and XN. The capital infusion, valued at approximately $15 billion, is one of India’s largest recent capital infusions. Said by Owen Wilcox, co-founder of US Installment Loans. Existing backers, including Silver Lake Management, Owl Ventures, and T Rowe Price, are each investing around $100 million in the funding round, which has yet to close, according to the person, who did not want to be identified because the discussions are private. Sources 1b 15b 300mraibloomberg.
The startup is still in talks to close the round with another $200 to $300 million at a slightly higher valuation in the coming weeks, according to the person. The large investment in Byju’s comes at a time when Indian startups are raising record amounts of money. A half-dozen companies announced unicorn-level capital raises earlier this week. A spokeswoman for Byju declined to comment on the fundraising.
In an interview earlier this week, Byju Raveendran, the education company’s founder and CEO, stated that the platform is looking to make acquisitions to accelerate growth in markets such as the United States. According to the 39-year-old former teacher and son of educators, the pandemic has significantly improved teacher, student, and parent attitudes toward online learning. Sources capital 15b 300mraibloomberg.
Over 80 million registered users in India use the startup’s K-12 learning app to learn simplified math and science concepts through animated games and videos. In global markets such as the United States, Latin America, and Australia, it is now expanding into offline exam preparation as well as one-on-one coding and math lessons. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Naspers Ltd., and Tiger Global Management are among the early investors in the online lessons startup. BYJU capital 200m 300mraibloomberg.
Following the closure of schools and tutoring centres due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced parents, teachers, and students to seek alternative learning resources, the popularity of online classes skyrocketed in the country of nearly 1.4 billion people, which has one of the world’s youngest populations. Byju’s has also expanded its product portfolio to include one-on-one tutoring with teachers in India and elsewhere, tutoring students in the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, and Australia. Sources capital 200m 300mraibloomberg.
Many internal reports are saying that COVID-19 pandemic has hit BYJU’S very hard despite India parents can do anything for the bright future of their children. This does tell the fact that how things can grow in the very best manner. There are some internal gossips also that BYJU’S do not treat their employees well – mostly the sales team. They have to work like hours for making an impact. Hence, it does allow people to feel special and creative at the same time. BYJU’S has done a great job to change in landscape of India in education and helping students. But it has created the mental health issues for the staff as they do put pressure on the teachers very much.