Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

BYJU’s – the leading education technology startup in India, has yet again raised a new funding round. The startup has raised capital from China-based Tencent Holdings Ltd. The funding amount remains undisclosed.

The company says that this latest round of funding will help to accelerate product development for new markets and enable inorganic growth through acquisitions.

Byju Raveendran, Founder & CEO, BYJU’S says that with getting Tencent on board, they have made their strong investor portfolio even more diverse. He further added:

With increased brand awareness and strong adoption amongst students, this year we expect the revenue to double again and we will be profitable on a full year basis. This round of funding will help us leverage our expertise in creating highly effective tech-enabled learning programs to cater to the learning requirements in new markets.

Hongwei Chen, Executive Director of Investment and M&A at Tencent, said,

BYJU’S has emerged as the clear leader in the Indian education-tech sector. We share BYJU’S mission of transforming education by creating personalised learning experiences for students. We are excited to be partnering with Byju on this exciting journey.

Founded in 2011 by Byju Raveendran, BYJU’s offers learning programmes for class 6-12 & test preparation for JEE, AIPMT, CAT, IAS, GRE & GMAT. The company claims that its app is currently used by over 9 million students, with close to 450,000 paid annual subscriptions and a high annual renewal rate of 90%.

In a statement, the company said:

BYJU’S has seen more than 100% growth, with revenue growing from INR 115 Cr (FY 15-16) to INR 260 Cr (FY 16-17). The company also turned profitable last quarter.

Recently, the company acquired TutorVista and Edurite from Pearson. Earlier in January 2017, BYJU’S had acquired Bengaluru-based Vidyartha, a data-driven platform offering customised learning guidance to students.

In March this year, Verlinvest, a large Belgian family-owned, consumer-focused, diversification investment holding company invested around Rs 194 crore ($30 million) in BYJU’S. Till now, the company has raised more than $204 million in seven funding rounds.

By Jeet