Byju Ravindran’s edutech startup Byjus has raised a new round of funds from China based investment company Tencent Holdings Ltd. According to an official statement, this undisclosed amount will be used to accelerate product development for new markets and enable inorganic growth through acquisitions. However, VCCircle reported Tencent has invested around $ 35 million (Rs. 225 crores) and the company was valued around $ 776 million (Rs. 5,000 crores) in this round.
The online education startup recently raised $ 30 million from Brussels based fund Verlinvest and acquired two US based education startups from Pearson, earlier this month. Livemint reported the Verlinvest round of funding was closed at a valuation of $ 600 million.
Founded in 2011, the company turned profitable last year and has seen more than 100% growth, with revenue growing from Rs. 115 crores to Rs. 260 crores in the financial year 2016 – 2017. The company also saw a $ 50 million investment from Mark Zuckerberg’s Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, in September last year.
CEO Byju Ravindran, speaking about the investment said, “We are excited to have Tencent on board with us. This makes our strong investor portfolio even more diverse.” The app based platform offers visual and text based study material for students in schools and those preparing for competitive exams. They offer learning programs for students in classes 6 to 12 along with test preparation for JEE, AIPMT, CAT, IAS, GRE & GMAT.
Hong Kong Stock Exchange listed holding firm Tencent Holdings owns a plethora of companies in the media, entertainment and internet commerce space. Tencent has also invested in Beijing based online tutoring platform Yuanfudao. The Chief Executive Director of Investments at Tencent, Hongwei Chen said, “We share Byjus’ mission of transforming education by creating personalized learning experiences for students.We are excited to be partnering with Byju on this exciting journey.”
Byjus, which has 8 million users and around 400,000 annual paid subscribers, has raised around $ 200 million from investors to date. Raveendran, in a statement, said they expect to double the revenue this year and become a profitable company on a full year basis.