The country’s most valued online education firm, Byju’s has raised a fresh $150 million (`1,093.98 crore) in funding from a clutch of investors led by Asmaan Ventures. Mirae Asset, MACM India Growth Fund and ARK Ncore also backed the investment round, according to the company’s filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), ministry of corporate affairs.
The fundraise reportedly values the company at about $16.87 billion. Byju’s did not respond to FE’s queries in relation to this round of fund raise.
The fundraise almost coincides with the firm’s acquisition of online test prep platform Gradeup, announced earlier this week.
The Bengaluru-based edtech firm that has raised a lot of capital from investors through 2020 and 2021 will use the bulk of the funding to finance its spate of acquisitions.
The edtech start-up has already raised close to $1.5 billion from a clutch of investors, including Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group, UBS Group and Blackston, in tranches this year.
Byju’s is reportedly looking to raise another $1-$1.5 billion at a valuation of as much as $21 billion.
Currently, the most valued Indian start-up, Byju’s is backed by a slew of marquee investors, including General Atlantic, the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Naspers, Silver Lake and Tiger Global. The firm claims to service over 100 million registered students including 6.5 million paid learners.
Earlier this year, Byju’s acquired brick-and-mortar test prep service provider Aakash Educational Services in a near $1-billion deal, one of the biggest in the local edtech space. In July, the company acquired edtech start-up Great Learning in a $600-million deal and spent another $500 million to acquire US-based kids digital reading platform Epic. The firm has spent over $2 billion on acquisitions so far this year, including Indian rival Toppr which is yet to be officially announced by the company.
Analysts at RBSA Advisors estimate the local online education offerings for classes 1 to 12 to increase by as much as 6.3 times by 2022, creating a $1.7-billion market, while the post-K12 market is set to grow by an expected 3.7 times to touch $1.8 billion. This growth is projected to be driven by K12, higher education, test preparation and upskilling categories, they said.
