In recent times India has its most phenomenal and most popular multinational edu-tech company that says “fall in love with learning”. And COVID crisis has further accelerated their mass adoption by parents & students and helped them penetrate the nook & corner of India(and other parts of globe). The way it has made digital education smooth like butter is also seemingly the most interesting story behind its growth, expansion and success.

Byju's History

Byjus is named after its founder Byju Raveendran. Raveendran was born to Malayaly family at Azhikode a coastal village in Kerala. He was a mechanical engineer serving at a multi-national shipping company as a service engineer. Coming from a family of teachers, his mother was a Mathematics teacher and his father was a physics teacher.

Byju was always a bright student and was very good at Mathematics. He always helped and guided his friends and started teaching his friends and helping them prepare for the CAT (MBA) exam. While doing this, Byju also attempted the exam along with his friends just for fun and scored 100 percentile in the final exam. He took the CAT exam again next year and scored 100 percentile and continued helping and teaching his friends. And subsequently decided to resign from his highly paid job and start his coaching class to scale it professionally.

This small step marked the beginning of one of the biggest Ed-Tech giant today!

He began teaching students on the terrace of his close friend’s house. Initially he would only teach MBA aspirants, soon he started running full-time coaching classes. He also taught students for free for a week.

As the number of students scaled up he shifted from terrace to classroom. Byju started his coaching class with just Rs.2 lakh (3k USD) and subsequently introduced a video-based learning program for CAT (in 2009). This was the first time that Byju’s included technology in teaching in 2009. As the number of students grew, he started his educational Technology firm under the name of Byjus - Think and Learn Pvt. Ltd in 2011 whose tagline is - fall in love learning (with the help of his few students who graduated from IIM). His method of coaching was so popular that he had 20,000 students across different states including Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and Bangalore.

Byjus - The Learning app, the flagship product was launched in 2015 for school students which would help gain access to educational material. It took 4 years to create this learning mobile application. This learning app also provides online coaching for CAT, the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET), The Civil Services Examination, the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), and the Graduate Record Examination (GRE).

Journey of Byjus as a Brand

The Focus of Learning App was to provide online coaching from 4th to 12th class students. The aim was to make it effective and interesting. Result: 6 MN downloads, 350k paid subscribers using the app for >40 mins per day. The App makes a rich use of animation, engaging video, interactive simulations, original content, and lessons from India’s best teachers. The app-based model has several advantages:

Study anywhere-anytime
The mobile application understands student learning behaviour.
Review assignments.
Both the instructor and classroom are available 24/7.
Accessibility to receive notes and announcements.
Discuss questions and take practice quizzes.
Students understand it easily after some usage.
Chat with fellow students who are taking free online educational courses.
Byju’s courses are less expensive compared to traditional classroom coaching.

Major Acquisitions by Byju's

Over the years, Byju’s has made approximately eleven acquisitions and has spent over $1.43 billion for the acquisitions. The following are the most popular acquisitions made by the ed-tech giant:

Acquisition of Osmo (2019)

On January 19, 2019, Byju’s acquired Osmo, a US-based maker of educational games, for $120 million. It was it’s first-ever purchase of a US Company.

The following are the key highlights of the deal:

Osmo was initially called ‘Tangible Play’.
Osmo offers the benefit of both digital and offline learning using apps. Its base is designed for iPads or Amazon Kindle Fire Tablets.
The acquisition of Osmo came weeks after Byju’s raised $540 million in a funding round from Naspers and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB).
Byju’s offered Osmo a cash option, but Osmo elected for an all-stock payout.
The acquisition helped to scale up Byju’s international plans to innovate, explore and set benchmarks for tech-enabled personalised learning solutions.
According to the reports, after the acquisition, Osmo continued to scale as a standalone brand.

Acquisition of Whitehat Jr (2020)

On August 6, 2020, Byju’s acquired WhiteHatJr for $300 million. WhiteHatJr, which was founded in 2018, is an Indian ed-tech startup that offers a live online 1:1 platform for coding and math. Initially, Karan Bajaj, the founder of the Company, raised $1.3 million from Nexus Venture Partners and Omidyar Network India.

The following are the key highlights of the deal:

According to the reports, it was claimed that Byju’s would help WhiteHatJr by major investments and providing efficient teachers to meet the demand of new markets.
WhitehatJr now operates separately by Karan Bajaj in India and the US.
The investors of WhitehHatjr also received a multi-bagger exit.
Byju’s became the leader in the world of coding.
This was Byju’s fifth (5th) acquisition.

Acquisition of Aakash Educational Services Limited (2021)

In January 2021, Byju’s acquired the Blackstone Group-backed Aakash Educational Services Ltd. (“AESL”) in a cash stock deal for nearly $1billion. AESL is a public unlisted company with 33+ years of experience, provides curriculum-based coaching for K-12 students and test preparatory services for several competitive exams.

The following are the key highlights of the deal:

Largest acquisition made by Byju’s.
This acquisition is also amongst the largest acquisitions by an Indian startup.
This acquisition also amounted to be bigger than Snapdeal’s acquisition of Freecharge for $400 million and Flipkart’s acquisition of Myntra for $300 million in 2015 and 2014 respectively.
The founders of AESL and the Blackstone Group have minority stakes in Byju’s.
Following the AESL buyout, Byju, his wife and his brother now own 26.09% of the ed-tech giant.
On June 8, 2021, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved Byju’s acquisition of AESL and merger of Byju’s and AESL under Section 31(1) of the Competition Act, 2002.
Khaitan & Co. advised AESL and its founders on the sale of their shares to Byju’s.
Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas advised Byju’s and Trilegal advised the Blackstone Group.

When the whole world was suffering from the ongoing pandemic situation and schools were shut down in different parts of India, Byju’s made the Byju’s app free for the students till April 2020. As a startup, the concept of Byju’s is quite innovative and has earned massive success in the industry. The Company along with its presence in the Indian market has captured and established its presence in the Middle East as well. The main objective of the ed-tech giant is to bridge the gap between the Indian education systems and help students fall in love with what they learn. It is creating a place where students can take the initiative of learning themselves rather than being spoon-fed. Marking Byjus as India’s 100 Richest People (2020) by Forbes, Byju is India’s youngest billionaire with a net worth of $3.05 billion. On June 21, 2021, Byju’s raised another $50 million from India Finance Limited (IIFL) and Maitri Edtech. Starting with small groups of students he graduated to teaching from large auditoriums and stadiums, and then via VSAT, Byju has taken the company to great heights and now the ed-tech giant’s current valuation stands at $16.5 billion, making it one of the most valuable startups.

Acquisition of Great Learning

Byju's acquired Great Learning to build its presence in Professional & Higher Education - online segment. The deal was worth USD 600 MN (cash + stocks). Great Learning will continue to operate as an independent business line under the flagship Byju's brand. Byju's has further earmarked another 400MN USD to help Great Learning improve its presence in the competitive professional education market globally.

Acquisition of EPIC (USA EdTech Startup)

Byju's, along with Great Learning, also acquired EPIC - A US based digital reading platform, for ~ 500 MN USD. This move will help boost its presence in US market and give it access to 2 MN teachers and ~ 50 MN students. This can also complement their previous acquisition of OSMO, a US based educational game maker.

What next for Byju's

Byju's ambition is to continue going global and capture America and other international countries. In this journey, they will continue acquiring companies from different countries to build on their presence and acquire an existing user base. Outside of English speaking countries, they will need to acquire startups to power them on language front. As is, they should be doing ~ 1BN in revenue basis all the current & past acquisitions.