Byju’s raises $500 Mn in ongoing Series F round led by Silver Lake

Byju’s has mastered the art of fundraising and continuing its scoring spree, the Bengaluru-based firm has raised $500 million in fresh financing led by Silver Lake. 

This is the fifth tranche in its Series F round and so far Byju’s has raised over $1 billion in 2020 making it the only internet company to raise over $1 billion this year. 

The fresh tranche has come within a week of a $122 million infusion from DST Global.  Existing investors Tiger Global, General Atlantic, and Owl Ventures also participated in the latest raise, a statement from Byju’s said.

Entrackr had exclusively reported about DST Global- Byju’s deal. 

So far, Byju’s ongoing Series F round has spanned across five tranches including a $200 million infusion each from Tiger Global and General Atlantic. DST, BOND Capital, and Silverlake led the remaining three tranches. According to a Bloomberg report, the company has been valued at $10.8 billion for fresh financing. 

The edtech startup was valued at $10 billion during its last fund raise, as per Fintrackr. Since March, it has raised $645 million across three tranches in its Series F round.

Apart from these mega investment deals, Byju’s had announced the acquisition of 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 for taking over the doubt clearing platform Doubtnut in an all cash deal worth over $100 million.

The coronavirus pandemic has triggered a spike in demand for edtech solutions in India. Since the lockdown, Byju’s claims to have seen over 20 million new students learning on its platform for free. Further, the company also made claims of onboarding over 64 million registered students and 4.2 million annual paid subscriptions.

Driven by the spike in usage and a massive shift in learning habits, edtech companies have been witnessing an increased interest from venture capital firms. Unacademy recently turned into a unicorn with a $200 million infusion from SoftBank while Vedantu was valued at $510 million in its $100 million Series D round led by Coatue Management.

ClassPlus is on its last leg to close a $15 million round from Falcon Edge. Google-backed Cuemath is also in conversation to raise fresh funds from new and existing investors.