Byju’s acquires US-based Epic for $500 Mn; to invest $1 Bn in the country

Edtech company Byju’s continues its acquisition spree in 2021. After Aakash Educational Services, Scholr and HashLearn, the Bengaluru-based company has taken over California-based reading platform Epic in a $500 million cash and stock deal.

This is the second-biggest acquisition for Byju’s which had acquired Aakash for about $1 billion. The company, however, did not provide the breakup of the cash and stock deal.

The acquisition will help Byju’s to double down its presence in the US as Epic provides access to its two million teachers and 50 million user base, said the company in a press release.

Byju’s also added that it will invest a further $1 billion in the US market. 

The development comes soon after the announcement by Byju’s to expand in international markets with a one-to-one learning platform called ‘Byju’s Future School’ under the leadership of WhiteHat Jr’s founder Karan Bajaj.

While Byju's has a decent presence in the US after the acquisition of Osmo in 2019, it will launch its new one-to-one learning platform in the US, UK, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico by May, with plans of expanding to more countries in the near future.

In March 2021, Byju’s had claimed that it generated $1 billion in revenue in the US. According to its valuation report, Byju’s had valued Osmo at $727 million in September whereas the US-based firm was acquired by Bayju’s for $120 million. These parameters indicate that the company’s international markets are performing well.

Seven-year-old Epic is like the Netflix for books with a collection of more than 40,000 popular books from hundreds of notable publishers. Since its inception, Epic has raised about $60 million from Creative Artists Agency, Evolution Media and Reach Capital.

Over the last one and half years, top edtech companies have made over a dozen acquisitions, even as the process continues. Byju’s, which also acquired WhiteHat Jr in 2020, is in talks to acquire Toppr, Great Learning and Gradeup. 

Since January 2020, Byju’s rival Unacademy has bought Handa Ka Funda, TapChief, NeoStencil, PrepLadder, Mastree, CodeChef, Coursavy and Kreatryx. The Gaurav Munjal-led company is also acquiring two more startups: Rheo TV and Adda 24×7. 

Meanwhile, Vedantu has also made two acquisitions in 2021: Instasolv and Pedagogy just last week. Entrackr had exclusively reported about the acquisition of Pedagogy by Vedantu on July 15.