Education technology major Byju’s has surpassed Paytm to become the most valuable Indian startup after raising about $340 million (Rs2,500 crore) in fresh funding at a valuation of $16.5 billion.
Digital payments company Paytm is currently valued at about $16 billion.
According to a report in the Economic Times, investors in Byju’s latest round included UBS Group, Blackstone, Zoom founder Eric Yuan, Abu Dhabi sovereign fund ADQ and Phoenix Rising–Beacon Holdings.
The capital injection is part of a $1.5 billion round that the company started raising in April, the report said. Byju’s had raised $1 billion in April from Baron Funds, B Capital Group and XN Exponent Holding, along with existing investors.
The company raised more than $1.18 billion last year alone from investors including Mary Meeker’s venture capital firm Bond Capital, DST Global, BlackRock, T. Rowe Price, Silver Lake and MC Global.
With the increased demand for online learning amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, Byju’s is looking to grow inorganically and enter new segments of test prep and upskilling.
In April, Byju’s announced the acquisition of Aakash Educational Services Ltd (AESL) with an aim to boost its presence in the test preparation segment. The acquisition was worth almost $1 billion, making it one of the biggest deals in the edtech space.
The company is reportedly also in advanced talks to acquire upskilling platform Great Learning and test prep firm Gradeup.
Launched in 2015, Byju’s claims to have more than 80 million students, including 5.5 million annual paid subscribers. The company saw revenues grow at a CAGR of 125% over the past three years to about $400 million. It aims to close FY21 with $1 billion in revenues, per a Financial Express report.