Bengaluru, NFAPost: Edtech giant BYJU’S raised $300Mn in a Series F funding round as new investment focusing on broadening its international business and exploring merger and acquisition opportunities.
The company is expected to receive more funding as a part of the round, which will ultimately value the India-based edtech company at over $21 billion, TechCrunch reported. It also showed that the new investment values the startup at $18 billion, up from a valuation of $16.5 billion in June this year.
With this movement, Byju’s IPO could value the company at nearly $50 billion, analysts said, making it even more valuable than the upcoming Paytm IPO. There are almost 80 million users using the company’s platforms.
The edtech giant is reportedly also looking at filing for an initial public offering (IPO), which is likely to happen next year and the company could be looking at a valuation of around $50 billion.
The pandemic, which enforced a months-long nationwide lockdown and closed schools, expedited Byju’s growth, as well as several other online learning startups, including Unacademy and Vedantu.
Raveendran, founder and chief executive of BYJU’S said last month that Byju’s is continuing to explore more merger and acquisition opportunities. These acquisitions are helping Byju’s aggressively broaden its offerings and tap international markets in more meaningful ways.
The startup, which has raised over $1.8 billion since the beginning of the pandemic, has used a significant portion of its recent fundraises to purchase firms. Earlier this year, it bought Aakash, one of the largest coaching institutes for high-school students with over 200 centers, for nearly $1 billion.
It has also purchased Great Learning, and U.S.-based Epic, among others, for over $1 billion in cash and stock deals. Last month, the startup disclosed that it had acquired kids coding platform Tynker for $200 million.
