Bengaluru based EdTech unicorn Byju’s is now the second highest-valued Indian startup after it raised $460 million in its Series F funding round. The company raised Rs. 3,328 crores in a round that was led by several venture companies like MC Global EdTech Investment Holdings. The company which trails behind Paytm as the highest valued startup in India is now valued at $13 billion.
According to Registrar of Companies (RoC) filings, Byju’s in its series F funding round had issued 1,40,233 convertible preference shares at Rs. 10 each with a premium of north of Rs. 2,37,326. MC Global EdTech will hold 1.73% of the company as it took majority of the company’s share with allotment of 66,613 convertible preference shares. MC Global is followed by Baron who took 24,535 of the company’s issue and Facebook Co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s company B Capital took 23,622 of the company’s CCPS.
The news of Byju’s breaking new grounds came after it was revealed last week that the company would be going to the venture capitalists to raise $600 million in another financing round that would value the company at $15 billion. TechCrunch revealed the news and said that Byju’s co-founder Byju Raveendran had informed company’s existing investors that he would go on to raise a sizeable amount in a Series F round.
According to reports, the folks over at Byju’s will be using the fresh capital to acquire more startups. Byju’s has lately been on quite an acquisition spree with acquiring WhiteHat Jr for $330 million and is on the due diligence stage of acquiring Aakash Educational Service. There have also been rumblings of Byju acquiring another Indian EdTech startup called Toppr.
Byju’s is a Bangalore based unicorn that achieved its unicorn status in 2017. The company helps Indian students that are pursuing higher-secondary, undergraduate or graduate-level education with its pre-recorded courses, an expansive catalogue of papers. The company is widely popular for bringing relatable objects such as pizzas and cakes to explain complex mathematical concepts.
The company found it’s highest of highs during the COVID-19 induced lockdown. The students of the country were completely locked in for months due to which they could not go out much and eventually took to their phones. These students helped accelerate the growth of various EdTech platforms such as Byju’s, Unacademy and Vedantu.
So far Byju boats a userbase of 80 million users. What’s even more promising is the fact that off these 80 million users, there are 5.5 million students who have paid for a subscription. It should come to no one’s surprise that while there are several startups across the country who are not profitable yet, remains profitable since its heydays. In 2020, Byju’s clocked-in a revenue of $100 million.
According to reports, Byju’s current revenue run rate which is at $800 million is estimated to reach $1 billion in the next year or so. The company now only lags behind India’s most profitable financial services unicorn Paytm which was valued at $15 billion in its last fundraising round.
