BYJU'S Acquisition Spree

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Indian EdTech unicorn, BYJU’S with a valuation of $16.5 billion, continued its buying spree with the 8th acquisition of the year. For an undisclosed amount, BYJU’S has acquired Gradeup, which is one of India's largest online exam preparation platforms. The number of new learners (subscribers) has increased due to the growing need of online exam preparation platform in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic as offline classes were conducted online to make sure that students continue with their learning.


To grasp the pandemic demand, BYJU’S has been on a purchase spree. Some of the major acquisitions by BYJU’S in 2021 are as follows:

  • Aakash Educational Services (for $1 billion)
  • Great Learning, an educational platform (for $600 million)
  • Epic (for $500 million)
  • Whodat (for an undisclosed amount)

BYJU’S had also acquired TutorVista and Edurite in 2017, Osmo in 2019, and WhiteHat Jr, coding training platform last year in 2020. It had also acquired smaller start-ups like Hashlearn and scholars.

Gradeup’s acquisition will bolster BYJU’S presence in the online exam preparation market.

As stated by the company, the exam preparation platform (Gradeup) will now be rebranded as Byju’s Exam Prep. It will cater to 150 exams across 25 categories. It shall be covering government jobs and post graduate entrance exams such as UPSC, GATE, CAT Bank PO/Clerk, Defence, UGC NET, etc.

In one of the interviews, Byju Raveendran, the founder of EdTech start-up BYJU’S, said that the company is planning an IPO (Initial public offering) in the next 15-18 months, however not in 2021.

Currently BYJU’S has 6.5 million paid subscribers and over 100 million registered students. In FY'20, Rs 2,380 crore income was reported by Think and Learn Pvt. Ltd, the parent brand of BYJU’S as compared to Rs 1,305 crore in the FY’19. However, the company’s growth came on the rear of a serious rise of the consolidated loss worth Rs 262 crore in FY’20.

Conclusion

The company which has already provided a platform for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) will be going deep down into the exam preparation space and will be offering across 150 exams in 25 categories. Before the Gradeup's acquisition, the company has already paid-out $2.2 billion in acquisition during this year alone. With Gradeup acquisition, BYJU’s will be able to accelerate its growth and reach across the country.

Written by Prachi Jain (Guest Contributor)

References

Byju’s takes over Gradeup in its 8th acquisition of the year (livemint.com)


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