Online learning company Byju’s has raised close to US$460 million (about Rs 3,328 crore) in an ongoing Series F round led by MC Global Edtech Investment Holdings LP, The Economic Times reported.
MC Global Edtech led the current round with an investment of $225 million (about Rs 1,628 crore) for a 1.73% stake in the company. The round also saw participation from Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital, among other investors. B Capital’s investment totalled $77 million (or Rs 561 crore) for a 0.59% stake in the company. Other investors include Tiga Investments, TCDS (India) LP, Arison Holdings, XN Exponent Holdings, Baron Emerging Markets Fund and Baron Global Advantage Fund.
The holding of the promoters’ group in Byju’s, which includes founder Byju Ravichandran and his family, is now down to 26.09%.
While this is Byju’s first fundraise in 2021, the company saw several rounds of investments in 2020 as well. In January, Tiger Global had invested $200 million in Byju’s, which was followed by an investment of the same size by General Atlantic in February. Then in June, the company had raised around $100 million from US-based investor Bond, and raised another $122 million funding from DST Global in August. The same month, Byju’s had acquired Mumbai-based edtech startup WhiteHat Jr. for $300 million. The company offers online coding classes to students in India and the US.
In September 2020, the company raised $500 million from multiple investors including Silver Lake Partners and existing investors General Atlantic, Owl Ventures and Tiger Global. The same month, three US-based investors — BlackRock, Sands Capital, and Alkeon Capital invested a reported $300 million into the company along with existing investors. At the time, Byju’s said it had added over 25 million users on its platforms since lockdown, and had over 70 million registered users and 4.5 million paid subscriptions. It had also claimed that it had almost doubled its revenue from ₹1,430 crore in FY 18-19 to ₹2,800 crore in FY 19-20.
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- Byju’s raises funds from US-based BlackRock, Sands Capital, and Alkeon Capital
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