Silver Lake invests in Indian edtech startup Byju’s at $10.8b valuation

Indian edtech startup Byju’s today announced that it has raised a new funding round led by Silver Lake, along with existing investors Tiger Global, General Atlantic, and Owl Ventures.

Byju Raveendran, the founder & CEO of Byju’s.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. But according to Bloomberg, the round – amounting to US$500 million – values the company at around US$10.8 billion. This is up from the firm’s US$10.5 billion valuation after it raised US$100 million in a funding round from Bond Capital in June, which made it the second-most valued startup in the country.

Earlier this year, the company secured US$200 million from Tiger Global and was also said to have raised another US$200 million from General Atlantic.

Last month, the company acquired Mumbai-based coding platform WhiteHat Jr. in a US$300 million all-cash deal as it looks to further expand its offerings in India and accelerate its US expansion plans. In January last year, it acquired US-based educational game company Osmo for US$120 million.

Byju’s claims that it has seen over 20 million new students on its platform since the pandemic began and currently has over 64 million registered students and 4.2 million annual paid subscriptions. It has also doubled its revenue to US$381 million in FY 2019-2020 from US$195 million a year before.

“We are fortunate to be in a sector of positive relevance during this crisis. This has brought online learning to the forefront and is helping parents, teachers, and students experience and understand its value,” said Byju Raveendran, founder and CEO at Byju’s.

Another Indian edtech player Unacademy also recently secured US$150 million in fundraising led by SoftBank, bringing the online learning startup’s valuation to US$1.4 billion.