- Bangalore-based Byju’s said in a statement on Friday that it had raised an undisclosed amount of funding from the VC fund co-founded by Mary Meeker.
Indian online learning startup Byju’s added yet another high-profile name to its backer’s list: Bond.
Bangalore-based Byju’s said in a statement on Friday that it had received an undisclosed amount of funding from the VC fund co-founded by Mary Meeker. According to a person familiar with the matter, the first-female founded VC firm’s audit priced the nine-year-old Indian startup at $10.5 billion.
Byju’s was in negotiations with investors raising as much as $400 million for $10 billion. The new funding makes Byju’s second most valuable company in India, ahead of last valuable $10 billion budget-lodging firm Oyo. Indian financial services giant Paytm was priced late last year at $16 billion when it increased its $1 billion Series G.
“Endorsed by millions of students, Byju’s has emerged as a clear leader in technology for education,” said Mary Meeker, BOND’s general partner and author of the widely influential Internet Trends Report. “We ‘re excited to help a visionary like Byju and his team in their quest to continue innovating and shaping the educational future.”
Via its app, Byju’s tutors help all the school-going kids understand complex subjects using real-life items like pizza and cake. The program also trains students who are taking classes at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Byju’s said it has accumulated more than 57 million registered users, of whom over 3.5 million are paid, subscribers. After New Delhi ordered a nationwide lockdown late March that forced all schools to shut down, Byju’s and dozens of online learning platforms like Facebook-backed Unacademy launched new free classes for students.
“This crisis has taken online learning to the forefront and helped parents, teachers and students alike experience and appreciate the importance of it,” said Raveendran Byju, the eponymous startup’s co-founder and chief executive.
“We have the opportunity to influence positively how the teachers teach, the students learn, and the function of the school. The ‘Tomorrow’s Classrooms’ will have technology at its core, which will empower students to cross from passive to active learning. The outcome would be a blend of the best of educational services online and offline.
Investment by Bond is a “testament to Byju’s role in helping students learn better by tailoring our platform to their capabilities. This also reflects the rising global interest in educational technology as digital learning is gradually being recognized and welcomed, “he said.
The announcement on Friday comes months after Tiger Global and General Atlantic have invested between $300 million and $350 million into the nine-year project. Byju’s was estimated at $8 billion at the time, up from $5.75 billion in July of last year, when the Qatar Investment Authority and Owl Ventures raised $150 million.
