byju’s: Byju’s to raise up to Rs 2,200 crore in funding led by Oxshott Venture Fund

Edtech major Byju’s is raising further funding of up to Rs 2,200 crore led by Oxshott Venture Fund, regulatory filings sourced through business intelligence platform Tofler showed.

Edelweiss’s Crossover Opportunities Fund, Verition Multi-Strategy Master Fund, XN Exponent Holdings and MarketX Ventures will also participate in what will be a Series F funding round for the Bengaluru-based company.

Byju’s will allot 77,174 compulsory convertible cumulative preference shares at a premium of Rs 2,85,062, according to the filings. Oxshott Venture Fund is expected to invest Rs 1,200 crore, while XN Exponent Holdings will invest Rs 150 crore and Verition Multi-Strategy Master Fund will invest Rs 147 crore, the filings reveal.

Byju’s did not respond to queries from ET on the development until press time.

The startup,
valued at $16.5 billion after its last funding round in April, is reportedly in talks with investors to raise $1.5 billion at a valuation of around $20-$21 billion.

Acquisition Drive

The edtech giant
recently acquired US-based coding platform Tynker in a stock-and-cash deal. Although it did not disclose the financial terms, Byju’s paid $150-200 million (Rs 1,100-1,470 crore) for Tynker, people aware of the matter told ET.

In all, the Byju Raveendran-led company has
spent more than $2 billion in the past few months on acquisitions in India and abroad and has acquired about 15 companies since it was founded in 2011.

Earlier this year, it
acquired Aakash Educational Services for $1 billion, in what was said to be the most expensive acquisition in the edtech industry in India.

More Investment

Byju’s has earmarked $400 million of investment into the professional skilling and life-long learning segment. Currently, it claims to have 50 million registered students and 3.5 million paid subscriptions. In August, it
introduced a two-teacher model on its platform. By doing so, it intends to simulate the offline classroom experience with a 360-degree approach to teaching and learning, the company said. It claims to be the first company to offer a two-teacher model in India.

Earlier this year, the company expanded in overseas markets through its ‘Future School’ offering, in markets such as the US, UK, Brazil and Indonesia.

Existing investors in the company include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Qatar Investment Authority, Owl Ventures, General Atlantic and Tiger Global.

Edtech Boom

Last week, edtech company
Vedantu raised $100 million in a new funding round led by Temasek-backed impact investing fund ABC World Asia. The funding also saw participation of existing investors such as Coatue, Tiger Global, GGV Capital and WestBridge Capital.

With this round of funding, Vedantu’s valuation reached $1 billion, joining others that have reached the unicorn status after Byju’s, Unacademy, UpGrad and Eruditus. The term unicorn refers to a privately held company valued at over a billion dollars.