BYJU’S Looks To Close Its $200-300 Mn Funding Round At $3.5 Bn Valuation

Bengaluru-based edtech unicorn BYJU’S will reportedly be valued at $3.5 Bn after it closes the ongoing round of funding worth $200-300 Mn. The funding will be received both as primary and secondary capital from global private equity firm General Atlantic.

According to reports, once the funding round is successfully closed, this valuation will make the platform, India’s fourth most valuable startup after digital payments firm Paytm, cab-hailing service Ola and hotel chain platform OYO Hotels.

Further, under this deal, some of the existing investors including Sequoia Capital may make partial or full exits.

The speculations for raising a funding of $200-300 Mn came up first in September. BYJU’S was said to be in advanced talks with at least two new investors to raise the funding. It was also speculated that either General Atlantic or Singapore government-owned Temasek Holdings will be participating in the round.

The platform was also reportedly in talks with SoftBank and other investors to raise $200-250 Mn for global expansion.

BYJU’S Steps To Make Learning Fun

BYJU’S entered the unicorn club in March this year. The company was founded in 2008 by Divya Gokulnath and Byju Raveendran. The platform offers a learning app, which was launched in 2015, offers engaging learning programmes for students in classes IV-XII.

It also offers programmes to help students prepare for competitive exams like JEE, NEET, CAT, IAS, GRE, and GMAT.

The platform announced to have crossed $13.5 Mn (INR 100 Cr) in monthly revenue in May 2018. In order to boost its presence, it also acquired maths learning startup, Math Adventures for an undisclosed amount, this year.

Edtech Market In India

According to a 2018 report by India Didactics Association, the online education industry in India is projected to reach $1.96 Bn by 2021.

As per a January 2018 IBEF report, India is the second largest market for online learning after US. The reports projected the online learning sector to reach $5.7 Bn by 2020.

The report also states that the entire education sector in India is expected to increase to $35.03 Bn by 2025 from $15 Bn in 2016.

Recently Delhi-based edtech startup Eupheus Learning which operates on the Pre-K to Class XII space raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Sixth Sense Ventures.

Some other players such as LogicRoots, IMAX Program, Vedantu, Toppr are also catering to the K-12 space.

[The development was reported by Livemint]

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