Online tutoring startup Byju’s has raised $400 million in a new round of funding from Canada’s CPP Investment Board, Naspers Ventures, General Atlantic and some existing investors, according to a report by Mint.
The latest round of funding values Byju’s at nearly $4 billion, making it the fourth most valuable startup in India after Paytm, Ola, and Oyo Rooms, the news daily reported.
“A direct investment of a big pension fund into the Indian venture ecosystem is a positive sign and opens up international markets for Byju’s. Its style and the way the business has been built — it is transferable globally — and I expect them to use the new funds to fuel their overseas expansion plans,” Vinod Murali, Managing Partner at venture debt firm Alteria Capital, told the paper.
The fund infusion in Byju’s coincides with a resumption in the funding boom in India’s startup ecosystem. Last month, peer Vedantu raised $11 million in a funding round led by Omidyar Network, and Unacademy saw $21 million infused in a Series-C round by Sequoia India, SAIF Partners and others.
Till date, Byju’s has raised over $240 million from Tencent, Verlinvest, Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Aarin Capital, among others. In July 2017, it raised about $40 million from Tencent, after raising $30 million from Verlinvest some months earlier.
Byju’s, which started out as an offline teaching centre in Bengaluru in 2008, launched its digital education platform in 2015 to increase its user base. It has two separate learning apps — one catering to students from Classes VI to XII and one that caters to students from Classes IV and V.
In June, Byju’s said it touched Rs 100 crore in monthly revenue and raised its annual revenue target for this year to Rs 1,400 crore.
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