The strategy behind BYJU’S M&A spree

Good Morning,

India’s first edtech unicorn BYJU’S was started by Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath in 2011 in Bengaluru. As of today, the decacorn — with an estimated valuation of $16.5 billion — is the most valued startup in India.

In recent years, it acquired Palo Alto-based educational play system for kids Osmo and WhiteHat Jr, a one-on-one coding live tutoring platform.

With the help of BYJU’s, Osmo — with $25 million revenue earlier — scaled to over 4X in two years to $110 million. On the other hand, Whitehat Jr, which was at a $75 million run rate before BYJU’S acquisition, has now scaled 3X to a $230 million run rate startup.

In fact, In July, it acquired Epic, a digital reading platform for children aged 12 and below, and Great Learning, an online educational platform. 

Speaking to YourStory, Anita Kishore, Chief Strategy Officer, BYJU’S, says, “Over the last five to six years, we have consistently grown 100 percent year-on-year. We will accelerate that and grow at a much faster rate.” 

Applications now open for Tech30 2021

Every year, YourStory unveils its much-awaited Tech30 startups list — a list of 30 most promising early-stage tech startups — at our annual TechSparks event. In the past decade, the 300 Tech30 alumni — which includes unicorns like InnovAccer, Freshworks, and Chargebee — have created significant value for the Indian startup ecosystem and beyond, raising more than $2 billion in funding and creating over 31,000 jobs, cumulatively.

Now, you can also apply to stand a chance at being recognised as a Tech30 2021 startup. The deadline to apply is August 15, 2021.

Editor’s Pick: Techie Tuesday

Monish Darda is a familiar name in the world of SaaS. The CTO of Icertis, India’s second-most valued SaaS unicorn, is a self-proclaimed “gadget freak” and an avid gamer. He has been building startups for around two decades, even before the term ‘startup’ became glamorised.

Today, he leads a team of over 400 engineers at Icertis, has built and contributed to the success journey of five companies, and is also the co-author of two patents in the area of cloud resource management and provisioning. Read more.

Startup Spotlight

Why Countingwell wants to be the Nykaa of edtech

Countingwell founders Nirmal Shah and Ravi Jitani spent over two decades in the IT services and venture capital industry, respectively. Around 2017, the two started talking about maths education. 

However, maths coaching continues to be a problem area for the 265-million-strong school-going population in India. Nirmal and Ravi started Countingwell to solve this. Read more.

News & Updates

• PB Fintech, which operates the online insurance platform PolicyBazaar and credit comparison portal Paisabazaar, has filed preliminary papers with market regulator SEBI to raise Rs 6,017.50 crore through an initial public offer (IPO).

• Ahead of IPO, travel portal ixigo has added six new members to its board who will join as independent directors, including NASSCOM Foundation's former chairman Arun Seth and Shubha Rao, former Vice President at ICICI Ltd.

• Fintech unicorn Pine Labs plans to annually "recruit, train, and employ" at least three Asian Games athletes and/or Olympians. Currently, the fintech leader is looking to fill new positions in software development, quality assurance, product management, content marketing, and sales.

• Digital lender Fincare Small Finance Bank has received capital markets regulator SEBI's go-ahead to raise Rs 1,330 crore through an initial share sale. The IPO comprises a fresh issue of equity share of the bank worth Rs 330 crore and an offer for sale aggregating up to Rs 1,000 crore.

• International ecommerce enabler Shopmatic announced that it has successfully onboarded one million merchants on its platform. The company is now planning to cross the five million merchants mark over the next three years, with a $3 billion GMV.

Before you go, stay inspired with… 

“The education space is a very underinvested sector. So, a lot more needs to be done in the space, and technology is just starting to make an intervention,” says Anita.

— Anita Kishore, Chief Strategy Officer, BYJU’S

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