Silver Lake backs India edtech player Byju's
Silver Lake has extended a string of large investments for India-based education technology platform Byju’s at a valuation of around $11 billion.
The latest round reportedly amounts to $500 million. Tiger Global Management, General Atlantic, and Owl Ventures also participated. Tiger Global first invested the company in January, putting in $300 million. General Atlantic has made several investments since 2018, including a $200 million commitment in February.
The deal underlines the company's momentum as a remote service under COVID-19 conditions. Silver Lake said that Byju’s has acquired more than 20 million students since the start of lockdown measures in India. The app currently has more than 64 million registered users and 4.2 million annual paid subscriptions.
“We are fortunate to be in a sector of positive relevance during this crisis,” Byju Raveendran, founder and CEO of Byju’s (pictured), said in a statement. “This has brought online learning to the forefront and is helping parents, teachers and students experience and understand its value. Our classrooms are changing possibly for the first time in 100 years, and I’m really excited about the opportunities that we have to redefine the future of learning.”
Byju’s offers educational videos, primarily serving students and exam candidates outside metropolitan areas. There are plans to make videos in different languages and target students outside India in the future. The company claims to have almost doubled its revenue during financial 2020 to INR28 billion ($380 millon).
Recent support for the company includes a $121 million investment last month from Russia’s DST Global, as well as an investment of undisclosed size in June from Bond Capital, a technology investor established by Silicon Valley veteran Mary Meeker. Meanwhile, Byju’s completed a $300 million bolt-on acquisition of local coding education provider WhiteHat Jr in August.
India’s edtech segment has historically attracted significant interest from investors seeking to respond to a strong cultural prioritization of education and a range of local digitization drivers, including poor infrastructure in rural areas. This theme has accelerated since the onset of COVID-19, helping lift Byjyu’s competitor Unacademy to unicorn status.
Other activity in this space includes Vedantu raising $66 million in a Series C round that included Tiger Global. Earlier this month, Eruditus, which focuses on courses for working professionals, raised a $113 million Series D with support from Byju’s backers Sequoia India, Naspers, and Chan Zuckerberg.
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