Exclusive: Byju’s raises $122 Mn from DST Global

The coronavirus pandemic has boosted the fortunes of edtech companies with Byju’s, Unacademy, Vedantu, Toppr, and Class Plus nearly effortlessly acquiring users and raising funds. Continuing its fundraising spree, segment poster boy Byju’s has just raised a fourth funding tranche in its ongoing Series F round from DST Global.

The investment fund floated by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner has invested $122 million or Rs 909 crore in the Bengaluru-based edtech firm. Byju’s was reportedly in talks with the Hongkong-headquartered VC firm to raise around $400 million.

For this deal, Byju’s is allotting 42,666 Series F preference shares at an issue price of Rs 213,042.13 per share, shows regulatory filings. Post allotment, DST will command a 1.2% stake in the edtech startup. 

The round appears to be an ongoing one and DST may invest more money in Byju’s.

The promoters group at Byju’s - which includes its namesake founder Byju Raveendran, his wife Divya Gokulnath, and brother Riju Raveendran - retain close to 33.1% stake in the company worth nearly $3.3 billion. Prior to the latest capital infusion, the promoters owned a 33.45% stake in the edtech company. 

Fintrackr estimates that the company has raised fresh funds at a $10 billion valuation. Last month, it had raked in $23 million from BOND Capital at the same valuation. 

With this, Byju’s has raised $545 million across four tranches in Series F round in 2020 including a $200 million each from Tiger Global and General Atlantic. As of now, the firm has raised over $1.3 billion from the likes of Tencent, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Sofina, and Lightspeed. Since March, it has raised $145 million across two tranches.

Apart from these mega investment deals, Byju’s had acquired WhiteHat Jr for $300 million earlier this month, one of the biggest acquisitions in the Indian startup ecosystem in 2020. The company is also in advanced talks of taking over Doubtnut, another edtech platform.

Meanwhile, its peers Unacademy and Vedantu have also crossed the $500 million valuation mark while Toppr cornered Rs 350 crore Series D round. Vedantu and Toppr achieved the feat during the pandemic. 

Another player, ClassPlus, is all set to raise a $15 million round from Falcon Edge. The Noida-based venture had already raised over $11 million across two rounds from RTP Global Sequoia’s Surge Ventures and Blume Ventures in May.