Byju’s is an online learning and tutoring platform for the students of Class 1-12 and it also provides coaching for the students preparing for competitive exams like IIT-JEE, NEET, CAT, GRE, GMAT. Presently, Byju’s is the most valuable unicorn company in India after raising revenue of ₹2,800 crores (US$390 million) in the fiscal year 2019 – 2020. The Edtech company stands as the 11th most valuable startup in the world, according to the CB insight data, with a worth of $16.5 billion.

Byju’s- the learning app was launched in 2015 and was developed by the parent company Think and Learn Pvt. Ltd. was founded by Byju Raveendran and DivyaGokulnath in 2011. With the best educators from across the nation, the tagline of the company – “Fall in love with learning” – perfectly defines its idea of promoting self-learning among students through the help of its easy-to-understand animated video lectures.

ABOUT BYJU’S AND THE FOUNDER

Byju Raveendran, BYJU’s founder and CEO, was born in 1980 in Azhikode, Kerala. He did his B.Tech in mechanical engineering from Government Engineering College in Kannur, Kerala. During his services as an engineer in a UK-based firm, Raveendran helped his friends prepare for the CAT, and to test his knowledge, he even appeared for the said exam and passed both times with an astounding 100 percentile. On top of that, he managed to clear the interview rounds for the IIMs, later deciding against joining the Institutes. He started conducting free math workshops for students. The word got out about his workshops and the number of students grew in significant numbers, around 20000 students who wanted to attend the lectures. In 2009, he started recording the workshops, with such a big offline audience, he had to predict the doubts the students might have, and be creative with his way of teaching. His former students who graduated from the IIMs encouraged him to start BYJU’s and that gave birth to the startup ‘Think and Learn Pvt Ltd’, intending to create online content for the k-12 students.

The company started building online learning products back in 2011, which took 4 years to complete. The startup wanted to build the product in a way the students would find engaging to indulge in and enjoy the process of learning for which they had to keep pace with, or even be a step ahead of technological evolution. All this while, he kept on conducting online and offline sessions to ensure that ‘Think and Learn Pvt Ltd’ was funded well.

BYJU’s was finally launched in 2015. In 2017, Think and Learn launched Byju’s Math App for kids and Byju’s Parent Connect app to help parents track their child’s learning course. By 2018, it had 1.5 crores (15 million) users and 900,000 paid users. In July 2019, Byju’s won the sponsorship rights for the Indian cricket team jersey. BYJU’s signed Mohanlal and Shah Rukh Khan as its brand ambassadors.

BUSINESS MODEL, REVENUE, AND FUNDING

BYJU’s offers a freemium platform to the students where they are given a 15 day trial of the features upon completing the procedure of gathering details, after which they have to pay to avail the courses and services like one-to-one mentoring and progress track record of the students. BYJU’s generates revenue through the app services and the tablets which the students have to procure after going premium with the app. The tablet contains the videos and other content of the bought course. And lastly, through the offline teaching methods which are restricted to only a few cities for the time being.

In 2017, Byju’s produced revenues of about ₹260 crores (US$40 million or €33 million) and twice as much in the 2018 financial year, earning ₹520 crores. In June 2020, with the investment of Bond, a global technology investment firm, Byju’s became decacorn at a US$10.5 billion valuation. In November 2020, BYJU’s became the title sponsor of the Indian Super League club Kerala Blasters FC replacing Muthoot Group. In June 2020, Byju’s reached the decacorn status with an investment by Mary Meeker’s Bond Capital. In November 2020, Byju’s raised US$200 million in a fresh funding round led by BlackRock and T. Rowe Price at a valuation of $12 billion. In March 2021, Byju’s secured $460m in a Series F funding round. In April 2021, B Capital, Baron Funds, and XN invested $1 billion in Byju’s.

Currently, the total funds raised by this educational technology company is around $2.7 billion, after the recent $50 million fundraised by the IIFL and MaitriEdtech in a Series F round on July 21, 2021, a funding of $360 million from UBS Group, Eric Yuan, Blackstone, on June 12, 2021. Another major funding of $460 million came from MC Global Edtech Investment Holdings on March 29, 2021. In 2021 alone, BYJU’s managed to raise $1.5 billion of funds.

Moreover, in 2016, BYJU’s became the only Asian startup to be funded by the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, an initiative by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan. In March 2017, a case study on BYJU’s was featured in Harvard Business School’s curriculum. After this, Byju’s started operating on a global platform.

GROWTH AND ACQUISITIONS

Over the years, BYJU’s has shown immense growth as it continues to expand its business and learning ideologies across the globe. With more than 95 million users registered on the app presently, the company aims to spread its roots in other English-speaking countries like the USA, Australia, the UK, and South Africa. With the higher stability of the company in the Indian market and the middle east Asian market (to some extent) too, BYJU’s acquired Osmo in 2019, an online learning platform in the United States to expand its market.

BYJU’s set a target to double its revenue to $1 billion in the financial year that ended in March 2021, and the company has reached its goal. Furthermore, the company revenues rose by 81% to Rs 2,434 crore in the fiscal year 2019-2020. Besides, this financial year has proven to be good for the company in terms of investment. With the recent investment from the UBS Group, Eric Yuan, Blackstone, and others, the educational technology startup has been successful in raising around $350 Million. This fresh round of investment of June 2021 that valued the Edtech giant at $16.5 Billion, surpassing Paytm, which was valued at $16 Billion, to the crown position, making it the most valued startup of India.

As of August 2021, BYJU’s has acquired 15 companies. In August 2020, BYJU’s acquired WhiteHat Jr., a platform that teaches online coding to school-going students in India and the US for $300 million. In September 2020, it acquired LabInApp, a mobile app that offers lab-like simulations for science students. Aakash Educational Services Ltd, a brick and mortar company that provides students offline and online coaching for competitive entrance exams like IIT-JEE and NEET, was acquired for $1 Billion. BYJU’s also acquired Scholr for $2.4 million, HashLearn, Gradeup, Toppr (an online learning app offering training in JEE Main, NEET, JEE Advanced, CBSE, and other school exams). BYJU’s also acquired Epic, a California-based reading application that focuses on books, eBooks, learning, and educational technology for $500 million and Great Learning, all in 2021.

The last company to be acquired by BYJU’s is Whodat Tech. There’s no doubt BYJU’s is expanding its business in India as well as the other countries slowly and steadily. For the time being, BYJU’s major competitions are Khan Academy, Simplilearn, and Meritnation.com.

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