Byju’s listing of aquisitions: Great Learning, Epic, Aakash Educational Services, WhiteHat Jr and extra

Edtech main Byju’s has been on a buying spree in 2021. The Bengaluru-based agency, which is India’s some of the useful unicorn startups with a valuation of $16.5 billion, on Monday acquired Singapore-headquartered Great Learning for $600 million.
The firm said it’s going to make investments one other $400 million to speed up Great Learning’s progress and strengthen its place within the skilled and better schooling phase. The transfer comes simply days after Byju’s had introduced the acquisition of US-based digital studying platform Epic for $500 million.
Byju’s is backed by a string of marquee traders together with General Atlantic, the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Naspers, Silver Lake and Tiger Global. It secured over $1 billion from traders in 2020 and earlier this 12 months, it raised near $1.5 billion from a clutch of traders together with Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group, UBS Group and Blackstone in tranches.
Here’s a have a look at Byju’s main purchases within the latest previous:
Great Learning ($600 million)
Singapore-headquartered Great Learning was acquired by Byju’s for $600 million on Monday and the edtech main will make investments a further $400 million to strengthen its place within the skilled and better schooling phase. Great Learning will proceed to function as an unbiased unit in Byju’s group underneath the management of its founder and CEO Mohan Lakhamraju and co-founders Hari Nair and Arjun Nair.
“With this substantial investment, Great Learning will accelerate its organic and inorganic growth in India and across global markets and expand its high-quality, transformational offerings to learners everywhere,” an organization assertion stated.
Founded in 2013, Great studying, a boot-strapped firm, has delivered over 60 million hours of studying to 1.5 million learners from over 170 nations. It leverages a curated community of over 2,800 trade skilled mentors and has collaborated with universities globally, together with Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), McCombs School of Business – the University of Texas at Austin and others to supply levels, diplomas and certificates applications. Great Learning and its groups are primarily based out of Singapore, the US and India.
Toppr
Byju’s is predicted to spend roughly $150 million for the acquisition of Toppr, in keeping with numerous media reviews. The deal is but to be confirmed by the corporate.
In February this 12 months, Byju’s was within the superior phases of talks to amass its rival Toppr, in keeping with trade sources, indicating that the transaction could possibly be round $150 million. Byju’s newest acquisition goal underlines its aggressive growth at a time on-line studying has been gaining foreign money because of the pandemic.
Epic ($500 million)
Last week, Byju’s acquired US-based youngsters digital studying platform Epic in a $500 million deal. Epic caters to youngsters aged 12 and underneath and the aquisition will assist broaden Byju’s footprint within the US because the agency will get entry to Epic’s wealthy international consumer base that’s stated to have doubled during the last 12 months and now contains greater than 2 million academics and 50 million youngsters.
Epic CEO and co-founder Suren Markosian and different co-founder Kevin Donahue, will, nonetheless stay of their roles. The US-based platform’s interactive studying mannequin for teenagers is in sync with the long run progress technique of Byju’s that counts the Okay-12 phase as a spotlight space.
Byju’s plans a further $1 billion funding within the North American market.
Aakash Educational Services (~$1 billion)
In April this 12 months, Byju’s had introduced the acquisition of Aakash Educational Services Ltd (AESL) for near $1 billion. AESL had already ventured into an omnichannel mannequin when it raised cash from Blackstone again in 2019 by offloading a 37.5 per cent stake valuing the corporate at almost $500 million.
According to an organization assertion, Aakash continues to function as a separate entity underneath Byju’s group. The check preparation firm runs greater than 200 tutoring centres within the nation. EY was the unique monetary advisor for Byju’s on this transaction whereas Phoenix Advisers was the unique advisor for the AESL.
With over 33 years of operational expertise within the check preparatory trade, AESL has lots of college students enrolled for medical and engineering entrance exams and several other class ninth and tenth degree scholarship exams/olympiads.
India’s test-prep phase is already a crowded one, with a number of gamers looking for a management place in numerous segments.
WhiteHat Jr ($300 million)
Last 12 months in August, Byju’s had acquired WhiteHat Jr for $300 million, making it one of many greatest offers within the edtech sector again then. The edtech unicorn was trying to present coding programmes for teenagers, an space of experience for WhiteHat Jr.
It had said it was additionally trying to make vital investments in WhiteHat Jr’s know-how platform and product innovation whereas increasing the trainer base to cater to demand from new markets.