Byju's

Founded in 2011 by Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath, Bangalore-based Byju’s is an educational technology and online tutoring app operated by the Think and Learn corporation. It is also India’s most-valuable startup. Byju’s offers online video-based learning programs for K-12 students and domestic and overseas exams. It launched “Byju's: The Learning App” in 2015 to offer learning programs for students in grades 6–12, followed by the K5 app for grades 4–5 in 2017, and its early learning program for grades 1–3 in 2019. In August 2021, the company introduced a 'two-teacher' feature for its online tutoring program; reportedly the first offering of its kind in the Indian online tuition sector. As of March 2022, Byju’s served 150 million users, up from 80 million it reached earlier in 2021.

The company has made several acquisitions in its domestic market of India: LabInApp, an app that simulates the experience of lab equipment and experiments (September 2020); Delhi-based tutorial chain Aakash Educational Services (January 2021); Mumbai-based Scholr which uses AI and real tutors to provide on-demand homework and tutoring support (February 2021); HashLearn, an online coaching platform that tutors students for competitive exams (May 2021); Mumbai-based Toppr, an after-school learning app (July 2021); Bengaluru-based Great Learning, a provider for online professional and higher education (July 2021); Bengaluru-based AR company Whodat to introduce more immersive products into their existing product line (August 2021); and GradeUp, an Indian online exam preparation platform (September 2021). Its most recent acquisition was in February 2022, when its subsidiary Great Learning acquired Superset, a recruitment automation platform. In June 2022, unconfirmed reports stated that Byju’s laid off 2,500+ employees across its group of companies, to cut down on operational expenditure and realign its strategic initiatives.

In 2021, the company introduced its flagship product to the US, UK, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, and Mexico. The international business will carry the Byju’s Future School brand and will offer coding, math, science, English, music, and fine arts in synchronous and asynchronous formats. In July 2021, Byju’s announced the launch of its Learning App featuring Disney in the US.

Byju’s has made a series of acquisitions as part of its US expansion, with plans to invest USD 1 billion in North America over 2021–2023: Palo Alto-based Osmo, the developer of an AI-based educational play system for children aged 5-12 (2019); Mumbai-based WhiteHat Jr., a coding platform for children that generates nearly half of its revenue from the US (2020); Epic, a Redwood City-based online reading platform provider (July 2021); Tynker, a US-based platform that specializes in teaching coding to kids aged 5–18 (September 2021); and Austria-based GeoGebra, a mathematics learning platform (December 2021). In June 2022, Byju’s announced that it planned to acquire 2U, an online learning management solution for universities, for USD 2.4 billion. In May 2022, the company was reportedly in discussion with lenders, including Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase, to raise more than USD 1 billion to acquire an undisclosed EdTech firm. Byju's was expected to generate USD 300 million in revenue from its overseas markets in 2021, and targets revenue of USD 1 billion from the US over 2021–2023.

Byju’s Labs is an in-house research and development solution launched in October 2021. Based out of the UK, US, and India, Labs will focus on generating new ideas, developing technologies and solutions across Byju’s portfolio, and improving personalization and accessibility for students. Byju’s Tuition Centre (launched in February 2022) is a network of offline tuition centres that combine both online and offline learning products for students in grades 4–10. Byju’s announced in January 2023 that it planned to open 300 physical tuition centers within the year to boost its hybrid coaching as the need for online education declines post-pandemic. In June 2023, the firm unveiled three new transformer models as part of its commitment to leveraging AI in education.

Key customers and partnerships

In June 2021, Byju’s partnered with Google to integrate Byju’s math and science curriculum with Google Workspace for Education on the Vidyartha platform—which will be available for free to participating educational institutions in India. The company has also partnered with several not-for-profit educational initiatives such as NITI Aayog, Isha Vidhya, and Bharat Edtech to educate children in underserved communities. It has also teamed up with technology company Intel to upskill coding and math teachers using the “Intel Skills for Innovation Professional Development” suite. In September 2022, the firm partnered with AR solution provider Meta Immersive Learning, to integrate the Spark AR Curriculum into Byju’s platform allowing children aged 13+ to access Spark AR coding courses and create customized AR effects such as Facebook filters. 

In March 2022, the company partnered with Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), to launch its EdTech platform and R&D center in Qatar and extend its services to the MENA region.

Funding and financials

Byju's raised USD 250 million in a funding round from existing investors, including Qatar Investment Authority, in October 2022, leading to a valuation of USD 22 billion. However, in June 2023, Prosus, the largest non-founder shareholder in Byju's, significantly reduced the value of its stake in the company from USD 6 billion to USD 493 million. The round follows 1) a USD 49 million fundraising in early October 2022; 2) a USD 800 million fundraising in March 2022 led by its co-Founder and CEO Byju Raveendran, who invested up to USD 400 million; and 3) a USD 68 million Series F fundraise in November 2021. The company reported in September 2022 that it was unable to close its USD 800 million fundraise with USD 250 million pending from investors citing volatile market conditions. 

In May 2023, the firm raised USD 250 million via a structured credit transaction led by Davidson Kempner Capital Management to support its core business activities and expansion plans. Moreover, in October 2022, the company secured INR 3 billion (~USD 36.45 million) in debt financing from its subsidiary Aakash Educational Services for the principal activities of its Think & Learn platform. In November 2022, it also revealed its intention to publicly list Aakash Education Services.

In April 2021, founder Byju Raveendran shared plans of Byju’s to go public in India or the US and, in December 2021, unconfirmed reports revealed that the company was in advanced talks with Churchill Capital's special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) to raise USD 4 billion at a valuation of USD 48 billion in an IPO in the US in mid-2022. In September 2022, Byju’s stated that it had postponed its plans for going public this year due to uncertain macroeconomic conditions and is considering an IPO in 9–12 months.

In June 2022, Byju’s reported that it expected its subsidiary Aakash Educational Services to record top-line growth of 60%–70% in FY2022, due to the reopening of schools and colleges. Based on this, the company planned to expand the team and open new centers during the year.

Early September 2022, the company came under scrutiny for not meeting its financial reporting deadlines for the fiscal year ended March 2021. According to the company, the filing of audited accounts was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the complexity of accounting for numerous acquisitions in FY2021. By mid-September, the company released audited FY2021 results after a delay of 18 months. Byju’s reported a revenue decline of 3.3% YoY to INR 24.28 billion (~USD 305.6 million) in FY2021. This was due to the company adopting a new revenue recognition model which deferred ~40% of its revenue to FY2022. Byju's losses widened to USD 577.4 million in FY2021 compared to a loss of USD 32.9 million the previous year. The company also stated that it generated gross revenue of USD 1.26 billion in FY2022 and a revenue of USD 570 million in the first four months of FY2023.

<h3>WhiteHat Jr.</h3>

Founded in 2018, Mumbai-based WhiteHat Jr. is an online platform for children aged 6–18 to learn programming for games, animations, applications, and more using a one-on-one online teaching format. The platform covers subjects like data structure, app and game development, machine learning, and space technology. In line with its plans to launch new subjects, WhiteHat Jr. launched the ‘Create with Math’ curriculum in February 2021 and online music classes, starting with piano and guitar, in May 2021.

The company has expanded beyond its home market of India to the US, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. As of May 2021, WhiteHat Jr. had an 11,000-strong, all-female workforce, 8 million registered students, and 8.5 million cumulative classes taught globally as of May 2021. As of August 2021, WhiteHat Jr. also offered its coding curriculum to schools, with 500 schools already signed up with near-term goals of reaching 1,000 schools as well as training 1 million students through the “physical blended training model” in 2022.

WhiteHat Jr. partnered with Thunkable, p5.js, Google Colab, Google Dialog Flow, Tensor Flow, Visual Studio Code, Codepen.io, Expo, and Jupyter Notebook and Code.org, a global computer science education non-profit, to enhance its coding curriculum. The company also partnered with FutureSkills Prime, a digital skill building platform offered by Nasscom and the Electronics and IT Ministry, in September 2021, to offer a course on artificial intelligence targeted at undergraduates and executives. In December 2021, WhiteHat Jr. partnered with Mojang, the developer of the videogame ‘Minecraft’ to offer ‘Code with Minecraft’ courses to teach students coding fundamentals, while WhiteHat Jr. educators gained access to workshops provided by the ‘Minecraft Education Edition Teacher Academy. In May 2022, the company partnered with EnduroSat, a Bulgarian aerospace manufacturer, to enable kids to code a satellite. In August 2020, WhiteHat Jr. was acquired by Byju’s for USD 300 million. The acquisition was designed to strengthen Byju’s position in India and gain access to the top-tier market with a higher education spend, and aid its US expansion strategy. Byju’s infused USD 18.4 million into the company the following month towards innovating the platform and product, expanding the teacher base, and scaling the business. According to Byju’s, WhiteHat Jr. will continue to operate as a separate entity for now. A year after its acquisition, CEO and founder Karan Bajaj exited the company with Byju’s Head of Customer Experience and Delivery, Trupti Mukker taking his place. More recently, in May 2022, more than 800 employees of WhiteHat Jr reportedly resigned from the company due to the termination of the 'work from home' policy.