One of the leading startups in the ed-tech space Byju’s has recently raised about $1 billion from Facebook, Baron Funds, XN, and Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group. It makes it India’s most valuable startup ever. Flush with capital, and recognition the company is actively looking for acquisitions. It has recently acquired Aakash Educational Services, and now it’s again in top talks to acquire two new ventures, stated by the sources.
It has been stated by one of the people requesting anonymity that- “Byju’s is in advanced-stage talks to acquire the upskilling platform Great Learning and test prep firm Gradeup”.
Moreover, conversations are going on with both the ventures and have reached the post-term sheet stage. Meanwhile, the second person commented and said- “Byju’s is likely to spend over $330-350 million to acquire Great Learning”.
One of them is an eight-year bootstrapped startup Great Learning, which is Headquartered in Gurugram. It is led by Mohan Lakhamraju. It offers programs mainly in the fields of Data Science, Analytics, Machine learning, Cloud computing, Cybersecurity, AI, and Digital Business.
It has an operating revenue of Rs 227.60 Crore in FY20 with an expense of Rs 239.82 crore, regulatory filing shows. The losses made stood at Rs 8.77 crore during last year.
Another is Gradeup, for this one Byju’s will strip out anywhere between $40 to 50 million, stated one of the spokespeople. He added- This acquisition will strengthen and add more capabilities, a wide array of subjects or learning for its test preparation segment against Unacademy.
It offers services to help students prepare for competitive exams like UPSC, GATE, CAt, NEET, JEE, SSC, and many others. It was founded in 2015, since then it has raised $10 million from Times Internet in 2019. It had posted net revenue of Rs 24 crores in last year while net loss stood at Rs 33 crores. While for this year, the CEO Shobhit Bhatnagar declared that its net revenue stood at around 60 crores.
Byju’s added- if everything goes perfect, both deals are likely to be closed most probably by the next month.
