Exclusive: Byju’s raises around $150 Mn led by Asmaan Ventures

Continuing its fundraising spree, edtech company Byju’s has raised around $150 million from three investors. The fresh fund has come at a time when the Bengaluru-based company is reportedly in talks with several investors to raise $1.5 billion at over $21 billion valuation.

Byju’s has passed a special resolution to allot  6,045 Series F preference shares at Rs 285,072 per share to Mirae Asset And ARK Ncore and 38,705 Series F preference shares to Asmaan Ventures at Rs 238,125 to raise Rs 1,094 crore or close to $150 million, regulatory filings show.

Asmaan Ventures has invested Rs 921.7 crore in this tranche followed by Mirae Asset and ARK Ncore which have invested Rs 138 crore and  Rs 34.5 crore respectively.

Following the allotment of fresh shares, promoters’ equity has been diluted to 22.97%. Before this tranche, three co-founders of the company including Byju Raveendran, Divya Gokulnath and Riju Raveendran had around 23.4% stake in the company when they raised $50 million from India Infoline Finance Limited and Maitri Edtech in June this year.

According to Fintrackr’s estimates, Byju’s has raised the fresh tranche at a post-money valuation of $16.87 billion. Surprisingly, Asmaan Ventures has picked up shares at a discounted valuation: $14.5. billion i.e 14% less than what Mirae and Ark invested for in this tranche.

Responding to Entrackr's queries, Byju's explained that the money from Asmaan Ventures is from an older tranche and was delayed. Hence, they have poured in the above stated amount at a lower valuation.

The fresh tranche appears to be a part of the larger fundraise and will be utilised to finance its acquisitions including Toppr, Great Learning and GradeUp. According to market watchers, post completion of the $1.5 billion round, the company may explore public listing in the US.

With this, Byju’s has already mopped up around $1.65 billion in 2021 and has acquired more than 15 startups since its inception. On Tuesday, the Tiger Global-backed company announced the acquisition of Gradeup, a startup that helps students prepare for various exams like GATE, UPSC, CAT, JEE, NEET, banks, SSC, Railways among others.

Entrackr was the first to report Byju’s four acquisitions including Toppr, Great Learning, Gradeup and Scholr.

Recently, Byju's filed its annual financial report for FY20 in which the company recorded an 82.31% surge in its revenue from operations to Rs 2,381 crore in FY20 from Rs 1,306 crore in FY19. During the period, its losses jumped 30 fold to Rs 262 crore. Importantly, the company was close to profitability in FY19.

These recent cash inflows are helping Byju’s to continue its acquisition while scaling up its operations. As per the documents submitted with the Roc,  Think & Learn Pvt Ltd ( Byju’s parent entity) had cash & cash equivalents of a little over Rs 1,900 crore as of June 30, 2021.

According to Fintrackr, Byju’s had made 70% of its revenue through sales of hardware (tablets and SD Cards) pre-loaded with their educational content. Its annual financial statement for FY21 is yet to be filed.