BYJU's acquires exam preparation platform Gradeup; makes 8th acquisition in 2021

Edtech decacorn BYJU's Tuesday announced the acquisition of Gradeup — an online exam preparation platform — for an undisclosed value. Interestingly, this is the eighth acquisition by the edtech unicorn this year.

BYJU's will rebrand Gradeup as BYJU's Exam Prep, catering to students preparing for over 150 exams across 25 exam categories, covering government jobs and PG entrance exams, including IAS, GATE, CAT, Bank PO/Clerk, Defence, UGC-NET, etc.

In a statement, BYJU's said the partnership will bolster its presence in the fast-growing online competitive examination preparation category, along with harnessing Gradeup’s pedagogy and student reach.

Commenting on the acquisition, Byju Raveendran, Founder and CEO, BYJU's, said,

“Our focus has always been on ensuring that every learner has access to the highest quality of teachers and content to help them learn better. With Gradeup on board, we will be able to further scale and expand our test-prep offerings in postgraduate level exams.”

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Founded in 2015, Gradeup offers courses to help students prepare for various competitive exams, which are offered through a combination of live classes, study material, practice tests, and assessments.

Shobhit Bhatnagar, CEO of Gradeup, said, “By combining live classes, assessments, and quality study material, we have built a highly specialised offering for students preparing for competitive exams. Together with BYJU’S, we will accelerate our growth and expand our reach across the country.”

BYJU's is one of the most active edtech startups in terms of acquisition both within the country and overseas. In 2021 alone, the edtech decacorn has spent over $2 billion in mergers and acquisitions. Earlier in August, it had acquired Whodat — a computer vision and AR startup.

Other key acquisitions of BYJU's include Aakash Educational Services (for an estimated $1 billion), Great Learning (for $600 million), Toppr (for $150 million), and US-based Epic (for $500 million). It had also acquired smaller startups like HashLearn and Scholr.