With $500 mn funding led by Silver Lake, Byju's valuation crosses $10.8 bn

 Education technology company Byju’s has raised $500 million in a new round of funding from Silver Lake, the leading global technology investment firm, according to the sources. Existing investors Tiger Global, General Atlantic and Owl Ventures are also participating in this round. The new funding has increased the valuation of the Bengaluru-based firm to $10.8 billion, according to the sources. The firm was earlier valued at $10.5 billion when it received funding from Silicon Valley investor and analyst Mary Meeker's Bond Capital in June. The company confirmed that it has raised a new funding round from Silver Lake, but declined to reveal the amount.

“We are excited to welcome a strong partner like Silver Lake to the Byju’s family,” said Byju Raveendran, founder and CEO, Byju’s. “We are fortunate to be in a sector of positive relevance during this crisis. This has brought online learning to the forefront and is helping parents, teachers and students experience and understand its value. Our classrooms are changing possibly for the first time in 100 years and I’m really excited about the opportunities that we have to redefine the future of learning.”

Byju's is rapidly narrowing the gap to become the most valuable startup in the country after digital payments firm Paytm, which is valued at around $16 billion.

Byju’s said it has continued to support students in their learning journey during this pandemic. In response to the closure of schools due to the ongoing pandemic, the company had made content on its learning app free for all students. Over the last few months, Byju’s has entered the after-school learning space with the launch of Byju’s Classes, a comprehensive online tutoring program.

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"We are delighted to lead this investment and partner with Byju (Raveendran) and his impressive team of education technology pioneers in their mission to help children in India and around the world achieve their true potential," said Greg Mondre, co-CEO of Silver Lake. "We look forward to working with them as Byju's builds on and accelerates its compelling growth trajectory by forging new partnerships and continuing to cultivate a comprehensive ecosystem of innovative educational offerings."

Since the lockdown, Byju’s has seen over 20 million new students start learning from its platform for free. Today, the app has over 64 million registered students and 4.2 million annual paid subscriptions. Byju’s had doubled its revenue from Rs 1430 crore to Rs 2800 crore in FY 19-20.

Last month, Byju’s acquired Mumbai based ed-tech start-up, WhiteHat Jr, which teaches coding to children, for $300 million. With coding fast emerging as a key skill for the future, this integration will also accelerate Byju's international expansion plans. The same month, Byju’s also raised $122 million from Israeli-Russian billionaire Yuri Milner's investment fund DST Global. Byju’s was reportedly in talks with DST to raise around $400 million, according to the sources.

Byju’s has raised total funding of over $1.6 billion from investors, according to the data platform Crunchbase. Experts said at a time when India is fighting the coronavirus pandemic, much of the country’s $180 billion education sector is going online to adapt to the new reality, throwing opportunities for edtech players including Byju’s, Unacademy and Vedantu.

This month, Unacademy, the firm, which was launched as a hobby on YouTube, raised $150 million in a round led by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank valuing it at $1.45 billion, a three-fold jump in just six months. This also makes the Bengaluru-based firm the second unicorn in the country’s edtech space after Byju's.

Last month, edtech startup Eruditus raised $113 million in funding led by Leeds Illuminate and South African internet giant Prosus Ventures (formerly Naspers Ventures). Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's philanthropic organisation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, also participated in the round. The deal doubled the valuation of Mumbai-based Eruditus t0 about $800 million, according to the sources.

In July, Vedantu raised $100 million from US-based investment firm Coatue with participation from existing investors. With this round, the Bengaluru-based firm’s valuation jumped to $600 million.