Byju's raises $200 Mn from General Atlantic at $8.2 Bn valuation

India's one of the most valuable edtech startups Byju’s is on a funding spree. In a span four weeks, the edtech platform has secured two consecutive rounds of investment including the fresh $200 million from New York-based existing backer General Atlantic as part of its ongoing round.

The Bengaluru-based startup has raised the latest round at a valuation of nearly $8.2 billion. Earlier in 2018, General Atlantic had poured in about Rs 410 crore in Byju's. It held around 4.83% CCPS and 3.14% equity shares in the company.

Byju's will deploy the fund for product and business expansion.

The round comes within a month of Tiger Global investment, which poured in about $200 million in Byju's at a valuation of $8 billion. This is a massive jump in valuation for the edtech firm after its last year July round.

In July 2019, Qatar Investment Authority had poured in $150 million at a valuation of about $5.5-$5.7 billion.

“General Atlantic has been one of our strongest partners and this additional investment shows their confidence in our vision, growth and future", said Byju Raveendran, CEO and founder.

The fresh fund will also help Byju’s expand its footprint and achieve scale globally as it has been exploring foreign markets for the past couple of years

So far, the edtech firm has secured over $1.15 billion funds across several rounds.

Eight-year-old edtech platform, which offers learning content on its app and web platform, claims to have over 65% of students beyond top ten cities. Out of about 42 million registered users, Byju's claims to have about three million paid subscribers.

Of late, the company has also improved its financial. While it witnessed a three-fold jump in revenue from operation in the ending March 2019, the edtech firm curbed its losses by 76% to Rs 8.8 from Rs 37 crore in FY18.

In the past couple of years, It has also emerged as one of the best bets for investors in terms of returns.

During FY19, Byju's has given a handsome return via secondary buyout to its existing investors including Sequoia Capital, Times Internet, SCHF PV Mauritius, and Mark Zuckerberg’s philanthropic organization – the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.