India's most valuable startup Byju’s has raised $800 million in a funding round led by Sumeru Ventures, Vitruvian Partners, and BlackRock. The edtech decacorn's founder and CEO Byju Raveendran also participated in the fundraise and made a personal investment of $400 million.

"I have always believed that edtech is a sector where India has the potential to create global champions by solving the trilemma of cost, quality, and scale. We will continue to invest in multiple learning models to provide students with quality education across the world," Raveendran said in a statement.

Last year in October, Byju’s had raised about $300 million as part of a larger round of new investment from investors such as Oxshott Venture Fund and Edelweiss Private Investments Trust.

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The funding had valued Byju’s at $18 billion, up from the $16.5 billion valuations in June last year. In June 2021, Byju’s became India's most valuable unicorn, surpassing fintech company Paytm's $16 billion valuations.

The company has raised close to $2 billion since the onset of the pandemic. It was last valued at $22 billion when the company closed a private round of $400 million from new investors in 2021. The startup has also been on an acquisition spree, not just in India but in other markets as well. The company last year acquired US-based edtech companies Osmo, Tynker, and Epic.

The fundraise comes ahead of BYJU’s plan for a US listing this year. The edtech major had received an offer for a SPAC listing in the United States that could value the company at $48 billion, sources told CNBC-TV18. SPAC refers to a special purpose acquisition company that raises capital from an IPO only to acquire private companies to take them public.

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However, sources also added that Byju's could also consider an India listing.

Byju's has received a term sheet from Churchill Capital, a SPAC set up by former Citi executive Michael Klein, sources said. Byju's will raise between $4 -$5 billion through the SPAC. Bloomberg first reported the development.

Byju's has also announced its foray into the phygital space. In February 2022, the company said it would launch offline coaching classes for schoolchildren. The firm has decided to open 500 physical tuition centers across 200 cities in 2022 after a pilot. The edtech giant is also looking to invest $200 million in offline tuition centers over the next 12-18 months, as per a report by the Economic Times.

The company boasts of over 150 million learners on its platform and claims to be clocking an annual renewal rate of 86 percent, and an NPS score of 76. Through its social impact initiative ‘Education for All’, launched 15 months ago, the company said it has empowered 3.4 million children from the remotest parts of the country and aims to impact the lives of 10 million children by 2025. The startup has already made in-roads in the USA, UK, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, and Mexico and will expand to more geographies in the near future.

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(Edited by : Jomy Jos Pullokaran)

First Published:Mar 14, 2022 7:38 PM IST