150 mn dollar fund in Byju’s led by QIA

Edtech company Byju’s has received an investment of $150 mn led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar.

The fresh funding would support Byju’S’ aggressive plans of international market expansion and creation of world-class learning products for students across the globe, the company said in a statement.

This round also includes first-ever investment from Owl Ventures in an Indian start-up.

“Indian ed-tech firms attracting interest from eminent investors demonstrates that India is pioneering the digital learning space globally,” said Byju Raveendran, Founder and CEO, Byju’s. Byju’s offers learning programmes for students from classes 1 to 12 in India.

Transforming the offline to an online learning experience, Byju’s has also acquired Osmo, a Palo Alto-based education game making company. With increased brand awareness and strong adoption among students, Byju’s tripled its revenue to Rs 1,430 crore in the financial year 2018-19 and also turned profitable on a full-year basis.

Byju’s has already crossed Rs 200 crore in monthly revenue and is estimating revenue of Rs 3,000 crore this year.

“High adoption and 85 per cent annual renewal from small towns and cities shows the increasing acceptance of digital learning as a primary tool for learning at home. This partnership will support and strengthen our vision of creating and delivering personalised learning experiences to students,” said Raveendran. “This investment underscores QIA’s strong commitment to the education sector,” added Mansoor Al-Mahmoud, CEO of QIA.