Byju’s valuation crosses $11-billion mark as it adds new investors in ongoing $500 million round

Edtech unicorn Byju’s has added BlackRock, Sands Capital and Alkeon Capital as new investors to its cap table in an existing funding round that was announced by the company earlier this month. Its existing investors such as General Atlantic, Owl Ventures and Tiger Global also put money. The round, as announced earlier, has been led by Silver Lake. “The amount is around $500 million and valuation is now $11.1 billion,” a source told Financial Express Online.

“As we continue to create engaging and personalised learning solutions, partnerships like these reaffirm our commitment to build and transform the global learning landscape through technology, innovation and quality pedagogy,” said Byju Raveendran, Founder & CEO, Byju’s in a statement announcing the addition of new investors. The September round comes three months after it raised funding in June from Mary Meeker’s venture capital firm Bond at $10.5-billion valuation. This is the fifth investment raised by the company in 2020 beginning from $200 million in January and February each followed by $100 million in June and $122 million in August. Overall, Byju’s secured $1.12 billion in 2020 and $1.6 billion in overall funding across 16 funding rounds since its launch, as per deals tracker Crunchbase.

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Byju’s claimed that it added more than 25 million new students on its app that has over 70 million registered students and 4.5 million annual paid subscriptions since India went under lockdown. The company also made two acquisitions recently, first, coding startup WhiteHat Jr. to expand its product offerings and accelerate international expansion plans, and second, virtual simulation app LabinApp that provides lab-like simulations for science experiements for students.

With respect to India’s unicorn tally, Byju’s continued to be the second most valued startup. According to the Hurun Global Unicorns 2020 list published in August, Paytm was the most valued Indian startup with $16-billion valuation (13th globally) while OYO with $8 billion was the third most valued startup. Ola at $6 billion, Swiggy worth $3.5 billion, and Zomato valued at $3.5 billion were other leading unicorns. Howecver, within edtech segment, Unacademy became the second unicorn when it raised $150 million round led by SoftBank at a valuation of $1.45 billion earlier this month.