Byju’s closes $800 million pre-IPO fundraise at $22 billion valuation

Bengaluru: Edtech major, Byju’s has closed a fresh $800 million capital raise as a part of the company’s pre-IPO round, the company said on Friday. Byju Raveendran, the edtech’s founder and CEO, has invested $400 million personally after picking up debt of the same amount, said people in the know. The pre-IPO funding round values the edtech company at roughly $22 billion post-money, continuing its streak as India’s highest-valued startup, individuals aware of the discussion told ET.

Other participating investors include Sumeru Ventures, Vitruvian Partners, and BlackRock.

Post the latest round, the founder group consisting of Raveendran, his wife Divya Gokulnath and Byju’s top management and employees will own about 29% stake– up from 25%– in the company, the above quoted individuals added. “We continue to witness accelerated growth in India and international markets through both organic and inorganic routes. Our sustained focus is on achieving our long term goals around creating life-long value for our learners. Our aspiration is to build something that will last for decades,” said Raveendran in a prepared statement on Friday evening.

IPO push continues


According to sources, the current raise is expected to be the last private fundraise for the edtech major, as it continues to be bullish about a public listing. Post this round, the company will look to file papers for an IPO and list on the public markets in the next 9-12 months

The company which was exploring going public in the US through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) option is re-looking at the plan. Byju’s is expecting a valuation of roughly $40 billion when it lists, persons aware of the discussion said. “ The company is also considering the Indian markets as a backup plan….at a time of a global slowdown in technology stocks, as well as geo-politicial conditions causing widespread volatility in the markets…” said a person close to the matter.

Byju’s is in talks to hire investment bank Goldman Sachs as one of the lead book managers for its IPO, people quoted above said. Byju’s had raised about $300 million in October last year as a part of its previous fund raise valuing it at $18 billion. Participating investors in the last round included Oxshott Capital Partners, XN Exponent, Edelweiss, Verition Master Fund, IIFL and Time Capital Advisors.

Bujy’s has raised over $2 billion since the advent of the pandemic and has used most of the proceeds to acquire other edtech companies. Last year, in April, it bought offline coaching institute Aakash Educational for close to $1 billion. In December, the company acquired Austria’s math platform GeoGebra.

It has also acquired Great Learning, US-based EPIC, to diversify its offerings in the growing edtech space.

The edtech platform has been aggressively eyeing deeper inroads into the US markets, Latin American region, as a part of the international expansion. The company recently announced its plans to double down on the offline segment in India and earmarked investments worth $200 million to grow its tuition centers. It also said that it has also launched 80 offline centers across 23 cities, and was hoping to add another 500 across 200 cities this year.

Currently, Byju’s claims to have over 150 million learners on its platform.

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