Founder and chief executive Byju Raveendran has invested $400 million in his personal capacity, people in the know told ET.
The round, which comes ahead of its planned initial public offering (IPO), values the Bengaluru-based company at about $22 billion, people aware of the development told ET. The mammoth post-money valuation makes it India’s highest-valued startup.
Sumeru Ventures, Vitruvian Partners, and BlackRock were the other investors who participated in the capital raising.
The founder group consisting of Raveendran, wife Divya Gokulnath, some family members as well as top management and employees will own about 29% stake following the round, up from 25% cumulatively earlier, the people added.
“We continue to witness accelerated growth in India and international markets through both organic and inorganic routes,” Raveendran said in a statement. “Our sustained focus is on achieving our long-term goals around creating life-long value for our learners. Our aspiration is to build something that will last for decades.”
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IPO push
Sources said the fundraising is expected to be its last private round, as the company remains bullish about a public market listing.
The company will look to file papers for an IPO and list in the next 9-12 months, they said.
Byju’s was earlier planning to float its shares in the United States through the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) route. However, it is taking a relook at the plan, the sources said.
The company is expecting to be valued at roughly $40 billion when it lists, people aware of its plans said.
“The company is also considering the Indian markets as a backup plan….at a time of a global slowdown in technology stocks, as well as geopolitical conditions causing widespread volatility in the markets…,” said a person close to the developments.
Byju’s is in talks to hire investment bank Goldman Sachs as one of the lead book managers for its IPO, the sources also said.
The company had raised about $300 million in October last year as part of its previous round that valued it at $18 billion.
Oxshott Capital Partners, XN Exponent, Edelweiss, Verition Master Fund, IIFL and Time Capital Advisors participated in that round.
Byju’s has raised over $2 billion since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, using most of the proceeds to acquire other ed-tech companies.
In April last year, it bought offline coaching institute Aakash Educational Services for close to $1 billion. In December, the company acquired Austria’s math platform GeoGebra.
It has also acquired Great Learning and US-based EPIC to diversify its offerings in the growing ed-tech space.
The ed-tech platform has been trying to make deeper inroads into the US market, and Latin American region, as part of its international expansion roadmap.
The company recently announced plans to double down on the offline segment in India and earmarked investments worth $200 million to grow its tuition centres.
It has also launched 80 offline centres across 23 cities, and said it was hoping to add another 500 centres across 200 cities this year.
Byju’s has said that it has more than 150 million learners on its platform.
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