BYJU’S acquires AR startup Whodat; early investor Ideaspring Capital to exit
BYJU'S has made its seventh acquisition in 2021. It is taking full ownership of Bengaluru-based AR and computer vision startup Whodat to expand its product lines.
BYJU’S has acquired Bengaluru-based computer vision and AR startup Whodat for an undiscloed sum. Whodat's early investor Ideaspring Capital, which had put in $600,000 in the company at the seed stage, will fully exit following the transaction.
BYJU'S is set to take ownership of Whodat's team and its proprietary computer vision platform to accelerate its new product development.
Whodat, founded in 2013 by Sriram Ganesh and Kaushik Das, has built an AR platform that lets developers create immersive apps, products, and experiences.
“We are incredibly excited to partner with BYJU’S on a mission to make students across the world fall in love with learning. Whodat has had an incredible journey so far and this will leapfrog our impact to the next level," Whodat Founder Sriram said.
Arihant Patni, MD of Ideaspring Capital, said in a statement, "We were very impressed when we first met Sriram and Kaushik as they were building a product that was in the frontier of Augmented Reality. We are very excited that they will be continuing their work in BYJU'S, impacting the learning experience of millions of children globally."
Whodat Co-founders Sriram Ganesh (R) and Kaushik Das
This is the seventh acquisition carried out by BYJU'S this year. In 2021 alone, the edtech decacorn has spent over $2 billion in M&As already.
Whodat follows the buyouts of Aakash Educational Services (test prep) for a mammoth $1 billion, Great Learning (upskilling) for $600 million, Toppr (K-12 live learning) for $150 million, and Epic (digital reading for kids) for $500 million, with the last three deals closing in July.
Prior to this, BYJU'S had also acquired smaller startups like HashLearn (tutoring) and Scholr (doubt-solving).
Commenting on the deal, Anita Kishore, Chief Strategy Officer, BYJU'S, said,
"We are excited to have Sriram, Kaushik, and the entire Whodat team join BYJU’S. This will help us accelerate our product roadmap to provide immersive educational products across product lines."
Incidentally, Whodat was also a part of Microsoft Accelerator before being backed by Ideaspring Capital in a debt and seed round in 2017.
Edited by Megha Reddy