BlackRock slashes Byju’s valuation by 95% to $1 Bn

Beleaguered edtech company Byju’s has been facing valuation markdown by its investors for quite some time. Now, Blackrock, one of its early backers, has further slashed the edtech company’s valuation by 95% to $1 billion.

According to disclosures, BlackRock valued Byju’s shares at about $209.6 in October 2023, down from the peak of $4,660 in 2022. This roughly values the edtech company at around $1 billion.

TechCrunch reported the development first.

In April 2023, BlackRock cut Byju’s valuation by nearly half to $11.5 billion. Before that, Prosus valued the edtech firm at $5.97 billion in November 2022. Recently, Prosus again marked down the value of its stake in Byju’s to less than $3 billion.

As per reports, BlackRock controls less than 1% holding in Byju’s.

It’s worth noting that Byju’s was valued at $22 billion during equity round in 2022. Byju’s has been the top valued company in the edtech space, and far ahead of its competitors including Unacademy, Vedantu, upGrad, and LEAD, among others in terms of valuation. 

The company is also looking to raise a large equity round. However, looking at the current scenario, fundraising won’t be easy for the Byju Raveendran-led company.

In the past, Swiggy, Pine Labs, PharmEasy, Ola and ZestMoney have faced valuation markdown by their investors. However, the trend is changing as Swiggy, Pine Labs and Meesho have witnessed valuation markup in the past six months.