Most celebrated edtech startup Byju’s raises funds from Tencent

India’s leading edtech startup Byju’s has bagged a new round of funding from Chinese internet major Tencent Holdings Limited.

Backed by Mark Zuckerberg and Sequoia, a $670 million valued Byju’s will accelerate product development for new markets and enable inorganic growth through acquisitions with the latest funding.

The development was first published by Economic Times.

"This makes our strong investor portfolio even more diverse. At Byju’s, we have been fortunate to have investors who have always played a crucial role as partners in our growth story. With increased brand awareness and strong adoption amongst students, this year we expect the revenue to double again and we will be profitable on a full year basis,” said Byju Raveendran, founder of Byju’s.

Founded in 2011, Byju’s has a footprint in the Middle East and is looking to expand its horizon to US, the UK, South Africa and other African and Commonwealth markets.

The largest funded edtech startup in India, Byju’s has about 8 million users and 400K annual paid subscribers. Through its flagship product-Byju’s-The learning app, it offers learning programmes for class 4-12 & test preparation for JEE, AIPMT, CAT, IAS, GRE & GMAT.

Bengaluru-based Byju’s, which has recently acquired global education company TutorVista and Edurite for an undisclosed amount, had raised funding from the likes of Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (founded by Mark Zuckerberg and Dr. Priscilla Chan), Sequoia Capital, Sofina, Lightspeed Ventures, Aarin Capital and Times Internet. Brussels-based Verlinvest is the latest who infused $30 million in it.

Byju’s claimed to clock a revenue of around Rs 4 crore in FY12, Rs 12 crore in FY13, Rs 20 crore in FY14, Rs 48 crore in FY15, and Rs 120 crores in FY16 and expects to grow at the rate of 2.5X in 2017.

As per Google’s and KPMG report, India’s online education industry is expected to grow almost eight times to hit $1.96 billion by 2021, with the number of paid users rising six-fold from 1.6 million now to 9.6 million.

Tencent which already had invested in Indian start-ups like Flipkart, Practo and Hike, its foray in Indian edtech startup can be seen as a sign of growth.

In April, Mumbai-based Toppr, raised Rs 2.16 crore (around $336,000) in a bridge round. Earlier, another startup Cuemath, raised Rs 102 crore in Series B funding from CapitalG and existing investor Sequoia India.