Exclusive: BYJU’S Raises $455 Mn Led By Baron Funds In Mammoth $1 Bn Series F

Edtech giant BYJU’S has raised over $455 Mn from a slew of investors, including Baron Funds, Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group, and XN, as part of its massive $1 Bn Series F round. 

According to the company’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs filings accessed by Inc42, existing backers such as private equity giant Silver Lake Management, Owl Ventures and T Rowe Price, Disruptive Technology Solutions, Footpath Ventures, The Prudential Assurance Company, Olay and Investments and GSV are also investing in the round, which will totally come to over INR 7,108 Cr. 

Last month, the company became the second highest-valued Indian startup, trailing only digital payments giant Paytm, after raising INR 3,328 Cr (about $460 Mn) as part of the Series F funding round.

In the latest tranche, BYJU’S parent company Think and Learn Pvt Ltd allocated 140,233 Series F Compulsory Convertible Preference Shares at a price of INR 1,402,330 per share with a face value of INR 10 and a premium of INR 237,326 to nine allottees amounting to over INR 3328.24 Cr.

• Baron Emerging Markets Fund has picked up 15,334 shares
• Baron Global Advantage Fund has picked up 9,201 shares
• XN Exponent Holdings Ltd has picked up 12,598 shares
• Arison Holdings (1998) Ltd has picked up 4,566 shares
• B Capital Asia III, LLC has picked up 8,347 shares
• B Capital Global has picked up 15,275 shares
• TIGA (India) LP  has picked up 4,409 shares
• TCDS (India) LP picked up 1,890 shares
• MC Global Edtech Investments Holdings LP picked up 68,613 shares

The $1 Bn round was reported by Bloomberg last week, which has now been confirmed by the company’s filings.  

In recent times, BYJU’S has upped its fundraising efforts in line with some mega acquisitions. In the last year alone, BYJU’S doubled its valuation to $12 Bn from the $6 Bn, which included multiple rounds of fundraising. 

The company achieved its decacorn status in July last year, after receiving funding from global technology investment firm Bond which valued it at around $10.5 Bn. Post this, the online tutoring firm saw a further rise in its valuation to $11.1 Bn when it raised a new round led by Silver Lake.

In September 2020, BYJU’S raised $500 Mn in a fresh round of funding led by US-based private equity investor Silver Lake in exchange for 2.09% stake in the company, with participation by BlackRock, Sands Capital, and Alkeon Capital. This came a month after it had acquired the three-year-old coding for kids startup WhiteHat Jr in August 2020 for $300 Mn, the biggest deal in Indian edtech sector at the time. 

The latest $1 Bn round comes on the heels of the edtech giant acquiring Aakash Educational Services Ltd (AESL) to bolster its presence in the test preparation segment in the country. Incidentally, the acquisition amount is said to be $1 Bn as well. 

“Our complementary strengths will enable us to build capabilities, create engaging and personalised learning programs. The future of learning is hybrid and this union will bring together the best of offline and online learning, as we combine our expertise to create impactful experiences for students,” BYJU’S founder and CEO Byju Raveendran said at the time.

The Bengaluru-based company claims to have added 25 Mn new students between March and November 2020, growing its user base to 75 Mn students with 4.2 Mn annual paid subscribers. Last week, the company announced an international foray into non-curriculum subjects with the launch of BYJU’S Future Schools, fuelled by the live learning model of WhiteHat Jr. 

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