Facebook-Backed Byju’s Beats Paytm To Become India’s Richest, Biggest Startup (Current Valuation?)

Byju’s, India’s online education leader, is raising $150 million from UBS Group AG at a valuation of $16.5 billion. Byjus’s will become India’s most valuable startup as a result of the investment.

The investment is being made by a subsidiary of UBS Asset Management.

Byju’s Total Investment?

It is in talks to invest more capital, bringing its total investment in Byju’s to around $300 million, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the talks are private.

One of the people said the startup could bring in another investor to bring the total funding to $400 million.

According to Bloomberg News, which cited a source familiar with the matter, Byju’s recently raised around $1 billion from Facebook Inc. co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group, as well as Baron Funds and XN.

Byju’s previous digital payments startup Paytm, which was last estimated at $16 billion, will be worth more after the UBS investment.

The online education startup, officially known as Think & Learn Pvt., has a long list of backers, including Silver Lake Management, Owl Ventures, and T. Rowe Price.

As well as earlier investors including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Naspers Ltd., and Tiger Global Management.

Byju’s spokesperson refused to comment on the fundraising or the valuation

A spokesperson for UBS declined to comment. And according to a source familiar with the situation, Musaab Javed, a UBS money manager, arranged and organised the investment.

Acceptance Of Online Learning

Raveendran said the pandemic had changed parents’, teachers’, and students’ attitudes about online learning in a recent interview.

The company’s eponymous K-12 app, which generates the majority of its sales, has over 80 million Indian users who learn math and science fundamentals through animated games and videos with tutor demonstrations.

Byju’s including a business that teaches one-on-one coding to students in markets such as the United States, Latin America, and Australia, in addition to India.

It also purchased a company that specialises in offline test prep courses for Indian high school graduates hoping to get into highly competitive engineering and medical schools.

Byju’s has got into international markets by renaming the coding lessons unit Byju’s Future School, following a windfall from the pandemic-fueled online learning boom in its home country.

The one-on-one coding and math lessons are also available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Mexico, in both Spanish and Portuguese. It is also trying to cover music, English and the creative arts.