Online Learning Platform Byju's Raises Funds From Silver Lake

World's most valued ed-tech company Byju's on Tuesday announced it has raised a fresh round of funding from a global technology investment firm Silver Lake. Existing investors such as Tiger Global, General Atlantic, and Owl Ventures also participated in the round.

Byju's

Commenting on the fresh funding, Byju Raveendran, founder and chief executive officer of Byju's, said, " We are excited to welcome a strong partner like Silver Lake to the Byju's family."

He further said, "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. 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."

While the company hasn't disclosed the amount it raised, several media reports suggest that the ed-tech player bagged $500 million from the investors in this round.

"We are delighted to lead this investment and partner with Byju and his impressive team of education technology pioneers in their mission to help children in India and around the world achieve their true potential," said Greg Mondre, co-chief executive officer of Silver Lake. "We look forward to working with them as Byju's builds on and accelerates its compelling growth trajectory by forging new partnerships and continuing to cultivate a comprehensive ecosystem of innovative educational offerings."

The Bangalore-based edtech player to tackle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic had made its content free on the learning app. The startup has lately even entered after-school space with the launch of Byju's classes, a comprehensive online tutoring program.

Last month, Byju's acquired WhiteHat Jr., an online coding platform for kids, in a $300 million all-cash transaction to continue to mark its dominance in the sector. It also acquired Osmo, a Palo Alto-based maker of educational games to transform the whole offline to online learning experience.

The company launched its flagship product, Byju's - the learning app, for classes 4-12 in 2015. Currently, the app has over 57 million registered students and 3.5 million annual paid subscriptions. With an average time of 71 minutes.

Ed-tech Space Is Booming

During the past couple of months amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, ed-tech startups have become a sweet toast of investors around the world. Shutting down of schools to prevent the spread of the contagious virus has led to the inclination towards online learning.

Bangalore-based Unacademy last week entered into the prestigious Unicorn club after it raised $150 million from Softbank and others. The startup in July also acquired Chandigarh-based PrepLadder for $50 million to strengthen market dominance.

Mumbai-based Toppr raised in July raised INR 350 crore in Series D round. Another ed-tech player Vedantu in the same month raised $100 million in Series D round from Coatue.