Byju's valuation increases to $11.1 bn after latest funding round

Byju’s, an edtech company, has raised a new round of funding from BlackRock, Sands Capital and Alkeon Capital. Existing investors General Atlantic, Owl Ventures and Tiger Global are also participating in this round. According to the sources, the funding is part of the $500 million financing round led by Silver Lake earlier this month. However, according to the sources, the valuation of the Bengaluru-based firm has now increased to $11.1 billion from  $10.8 billion.
 

Though the company confirmed the development, it declined to reveal the amount and the valuation.
 

“We are excited to welcome Blackrock, Sands Capital and Alkeon as our partners, ” said Byju Raveendran, founder and chief executive officer (CEO), Byju’s.  "As we continue to create engaging and personalised learning solutions, partnerships like these reaffirm our commitment to build and transform the global learning landscape through technology, innovation and quality pedagogy. Continued support from our existing investors is a testament of their confidence in us and our mission."
 

Byju’s has seen tremendous growth in the last few months. Since the lockdown, it has added over 25 million new students on its platform. Today, the app has over 70 million registered students and 4.5 million annual paid subscriptions.
 

Byju’s has also introduced a comprehensive online tutoring program - Byju’s Classes, to cater to the after-school learning needs of students. Learning programmes in multiple vernacular languages like Hindi, Kannada, Bengali, Malayalam and Gujarati have been introduced during the lockdown too.
 

Last month, Byju’s acquired Mumbai-based ed-tech start-up WhiteHat Jr, which teaches children coding, for $300 million. With coding fast emerging as a key skill for the future, this integration will accelerate Byju's international expansion plans.
 

Byju's is narrowing the gap to become the most valuable start-up in the country after digital payments firm Paytm, which is valued at around $16 billion. In all, Byju’s has raised over $2.1 billion from investors, according to Crunchbase, a data platform.
 

The firm had almost doubled its revenue from Rs 1,430 crore to Rs 2,800 crore in FY20. It is now inching towards the $1-billion revenue milestone.
 

The pandemic has been a watershed moment for India’s edtech sector. The amount of capital invested in edtech startups in the country has increased nearly four times to $1.5 billion in the first nine months of 2020 as compared to $409 million in entire 2019, according to research firm Venture Intelligence.