"Revolutionizing Education: The Success Story of BYJU'S, India's Leading Edtech Platform"
BYJU’S is an Indian educational technology (edtech) company that provides online learning services to students from kindergarten to 12th grade. The company was founded in 2011 by Byju Raveendran, a teacher-turned-entrepreneur.
The company started as a test preparation platform for engineering and medical entrance exams, but later expanded to offer educational content for school students. BYJU’S uses a combination of videos, interactive quizzes, and personalized support to deliver its courses. The platform has been used by millions of students in India and around the world.
One of the reasons for BYJU’S success is its innovative approach to learning. The platform’s engaging content and user-friendly interface have made it popular among students. Additionally, BYJU’S has invested heavily in technology and has developed AI-powered tools to personalize learning and provide real-time feedback to students.
Another key factor in BYJU’S success is its ability to raise funds. The company has raised over $1.5 billion in funding from investors such as Tencent, Sequoia Capital, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. This has enabled the company to expand its product offerings and reach new markets.
In 2020, BYJU’S acquired WhiteHat Jr., a coding education platform, for $300 million. This acquisition helped BYJU’S expand its offerings to coding and other STEM subjects.
Overall, BYJU’S success can be attributed to its innovative approach to learning, investment in technology, and ability to raise funds to fuel its growth. The company has become a leader in the edtech industry and has helped millions of students in India and around the world to achieve academic success.
BYJU's - Company Highlights
| Startup Name | BYJU’S |
|---|---|
| Headquarter | Bangalore |
| Founder | Byju Raveendran |
| Sector | Edtech |
| Founded | 2011 |
| Valuation | $23 Billion (July 2022) |
| Total Funding | $2.9 Billion (September 2021) |
| Revenue | $310.19 mn (Rs 2,381 Cr in FY20) |
| Parent Organization | Think and Learn Private Ltd |
| Website | byjus.com |
Highlights
About BYJU’s and How BYJU’s Works
BYJU’s – Founders and Team
BYJU’s – Startup Story | How was BYJU’s Started
BYJU’s – Name, Logo, and Tagline
BYJU’s – Business Model and Revenue Model
BYJU’s – Funding and Investors
BYJU’s – IPO
BYJU’s – Challenges faced by BYJU’s
BYJU’s – Competitors/Alternatives
BYJU’s – Acquisitions
BYJU’s – Growth and Revenue
BYJU’s – Partnerships
BYJU’s – Future Plans
About BYJU's and How BYJU's Works
BYJU’S is an online tutoring and coaching firm based in Bangalore, founded in 2011, and operating on a freemium model. The platform offers video lectures for students in grades 1-12 and those preparing for competitive exams like IIT-JEE, NEET, CAT, GRE, and GMAT. The parent company of BYJU’s is ‘Think and Learn Pvt Ltd.’ Launched in 2015, BYJU’s – the Learning app has been a massive success, with over 15 million students using it worldwide and 900,000 paid subscribers. The app promotes self-learning, utilizing a combination of innovative learning, world-class teachers, proven pedagogical methods, and personalized learning.
BYJU's - Founders and Team
Byju Raveendran is the founder and CEO of BYJU’s Classes, an education technology firm with the tagline “Fall in love with learning.” Born in 1980 in Azhikode, Kerala, Raveendran holds a B.Tech in mechanical engineering from the Government Engineering College in Kannur. Prior to founding BYJU’s, he worked as a service engineer in a multinational shipping firm. Raveendran is also a talented sportsperson and has represented his university in football, cricket, table tennis, and badminton.
His wife, Divya Gokulnath, is a co-founder and director at BYJU’s. In 2021,
Rachna Bahadur was appointed as Senior VP, overseeing the overall planning, strategies, and roadmap of BYJU’s.
BYJU's - Startup Story | How was BYJU's Started?
Byju Raveendran, hailing from the small village of Azhikode in Kerala, started his career as an engineer with a shipping company based in the UK. However, his passion for teaching led him to help his friends prepare for the CAT exam, which he himself took and secured a perfect score of 100 percentile. This success inspired him to start teaching mathematics to students preparing for exams.
Initially, Byju conducted free mathematics workshops, which became incredibly popular, attracting more than 20,000 students at one point. He then began charging fees for his workshops after gaining confidence in his teaching abilities. His former students who graduated from the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) encouraged him to start BYJU’s classes.
In 2011, Byju started ‘Think and Learn Pvt Ltd’ to create educational content for school students. In 2015, he launched Byju’s – The Learning App, which became an instant success with over 5.5 million downloads in its first year alone. Today, Byju’s is one of the leading edtech platforms in India, with over 15 million students using the app and 9,00,000 paid subscribers.
BYJU's - Name, Logo, and Tagline
BYJU’s tagline is “Fall in love with learning“. Byju’s got its name from its founder’s first name.
BYJU's - Business Model and Revenue Model
- BYJU’s operates on a freemium business model that offers both free and premium services to customers.
- The company provides a 15-day free trial to students who submit their details on its website or application.
- Once the free trial ends, students must purchase the courses from BYJU’s to access the complete content.
- BYJU’s provides one-to-one mentoring to its subscribers and offers feedback to parents.
- The company also provides classroom coaching in select areas, including Noida and Gurgaon.
- BYJU’s generates revenue through three primary channels:
- The app, which offers a range of test series and courses to compel users to make purchases.
- Electronic tablets that customers must buy when they purchase a course. These tablets contain videos, tests, practice questions, quizzes, and more related to the course.
- Classroom teaching, which is currently only available in a few cities.
- Overall, BYJU’s success can be attributed to its innovative blend of technology and education, its engaging visual content, and its personalized learning approach.
BYJU's - Funding and Investors
| Stage | Amount | Lead Investors | |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 11, 2022 | – | $800 Million | Byju Raveendran, Sumeru Ventures, Vitruvian Partners and BlackRock |
| November 8, 2021 | Debt Financing | $1.2 Billion | – |
| October 4, 2021 | Series F | $286.61 Million | Oxshott Capital Partners |
| September 8, 2021 | – | $150 Million | Asmaan Ventures, Mirae Asset, ARK Ncore |
| June 21, 2021 | Series F | $50 Million | IIFL and Maitri Edtech |
| June 12, 2021 | Series F | $350 Million | UBS Group, Eric Yuan, Blackstone |
| March 29, 2021 | Series F | $460 Million | MC Global Edtech Investment Holdings |
| September 8, 2020 | Private Equity Round | $500 Million | Silver Lake |
| August 26, 2020 | Venture Round | $122 Million | DST Global |
| June 26, 2020 | Venture Round | $100 Million | Bond |
| January 9, 2020 | Private Equity Round | $200 Million | Tiger Global Management |
| July 10, 2019 | Venture Round | $150 Million | Qatar Investment Authority |
| March 22, 2019 | Private Equity Round | $31 Million | General Atlantic & Tencent Holdings |
| December 11, 2018 | Venture Round | $ 540 Million | Prosus & Naspers |
| August 2017 | Corporate Round | $40 Million | Tencent Holdings |
| March 2017 | Series F | $30 Million | Verlinvest |
| December 2016 | Series E | $15 Million | IFC Venture Capital Group & InnoVen Capital |
| September 2016 | Series D | $50 Million | Chan Zuckerberg Initiative & Sequoia Capital India |
| March 2016 | Series C | $75 Million | Sequoia Capital India & Sofina |
BYJU's - IPO
Byju’s, India’s second-highest valued startup, is planning to go public through an IPO within the next 8-10 months. The edtech unicorn, led by Byju Raveendran, has gained popularity in the startup ecosystem due to its impressive fundraises and acquisitions. The company is looking to launch its IPO at a valuation of over $16.8 billion. To further progress its IPO plans, Byju’s has decided to merge with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) of Churchill Capital, a global strategic advisory firm, and raise around $4 billion. As per reports in December 2021, this IPO round is expected to value the company at over $48 billion. The IPO is set to be conducted in the next 18 months, as of July 7, 2022, with a valuation between $40-45 billion, which is almost double its present valuation.
BYJU's - Competitors/Alternatives
BYJU’s is facing stiff competition in the ed-tech space with several companies offering similar products and services. Some of the major competitors of BYJU’s are:
UpGrad – A Mumbai-based ed-tech platform that offers courses in various fields like data science, management, and technology.
Meritnation.com – A Delhi-based online education platform that offers study materials, tests, and videos for students from classes 1 to 12.
Vedantu – A Bengaluru-based ed-tech startup that offers live online tutoring and personalized learning experience to students from grades 1 to 12.
ClassPlus – A Noida-based ed-tech platform that offers coaching institutes and tutors a platform to manage their day-to-day operations, conduct assessments, and engage with students.
Unacademy – A Bengaluru-based ed-tech startup that offers live classes, mock tests, and other educational content for students preparing for various competitive exams.
Teachable – A New York-based ed-tech platform that allows educators to create and sell online courses.
Khan Academy – A non-profit educational organization that provides free online courses and educational videos.
Simplilearn – A Bengaluru-based ed-tech platform that offers courses in various fields like digital marketing, data science, and project management.
Schoolwise – A Gurugram-based ed-tech platform that offers an integrated platform for school management, teacher-parent communication, and student engagement.
Toppr – A Mumbai-based ed-tech platform that offers a personalized learning experience to students preparing for various entrance exams.
BYJU's - Acquisitions
All BYJU’s Acquisitions:
| Date | Company | About Company | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 2017 | Vidyartha | A customised learning guidance platform for K8-K12 students | $6.71 million |
| July 2017 | TutorVista | Online tutoring services platform | Undisclosed |
| July 2017 | Edurite | Audio-visual educational content provider | Undisclosed |
| July 2018 | Math Adventures | A platform that aids kids to learn math in a fun way | Undisclosed |
| January 2019 | Osmo | Platform offers educational courses with the use of games, videos and other materials | $120 million |
| August 2020 | WhiteHat Jr. | Offers online coding classes to school-going students in India and the US | $300 million |
| September 2020 | LabInApp | Offers lab-like simulations for science students on a mobile app. | Undisclosed |
| January 2021 | Aakash Educational Services Ltd | Helps students get admission to engineering and medical schools by providing coaching for entrance exams | $1 Billion |
| February 18, 2021 | Scholr | Mumbai-based Ai-enabled online education platform | $2.4 million |
| May 29, 2021 | HashLearn | Online coaching platform for competitive exams | Undisclosed |
| July 13, 2021 | Gradeup | India’s largest online exam preparation website | Undisclosed |
| July 13, 2021 | Toppr | Online learning app offering training in JEE Main, NEET, JEE Advanced, CBSE and other school exams | Undisclosed |
| July 21, 2021 | Epic | California-based reading application that focuses on books, eBooks, learning, and educational technology | $500 million |
| July 24, 2021 | Great Learning | Edtech platform that offers career-relevant courses from world-class universities | Undisclosed |
| August 4, 2021 | Whodat Tech | A spatial mapping, computer vision and augmented reality startup based out of Bangalore | Undisclosed |
| September 16, 2021 | Tynker | Tynker is a US-based coding platform that empowers kids to learning programming and code. | $200 million |
| December 8, 2021 | GeoGebra | GeoGebra is a Austria-based math learning platform that aims to empower math learning and make it easy and interactive. | $100 mn |
BYJU's - Growth and Revenue
The success of BYJU’s, an innovative startup, is due to its rigorous advertising strategies, with one of Bollywood’s prominent actors, Shahrukh Khan, serving as its brand ambassador. The company has captured the Indian market and established a presence in the Middle East, with plans to expand to the United States, United Kingdom, South Africa, and other global markets. Recently, BYJU’s partnered with the Indian government’s public policy think tank, NITI Aayog, to offer quality tech-driven learning programs to children across 112 “aspirational districts” of India. BYJU’s also collaborated with Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) to launch a new edtech business and R&D centre in Doha, Qatar, to create cutting-edge learning solutions that will be personalised for Middle East and North African students. BYJU’s revenue increased by 81% to Rs 2,434 crores in the fiscal year 2019-2020. The company is anticipating revenue of Rs 10,000 crore in FY22 and has started offering a hybrid model where students can embrace physical/offline education centers for their classes.
BYJU's - Partnerships
Byju’s has renewed its partnership with the Indian cricketing board for the upcoming 18 months, at a cost of approximately $55 million. As a result, Byju’s will continue to be featured on the jersey of the Indian cricket team, a sponsorship deal that began after India’s South Africa tour. This extension ensures that the Byju’s-BCCI partnership will run until the ODI World Cup in 2023.
Byju’s had previously partnered with Oppo to acquire the rights to IPL sponsorship in 2019. Additionally, Byju’s has formed significant collaborations with Google to provide a “Learning Solution” for schools, with NITI Aayog to offer free education in 112 districts, with Intel to invest in and improve student-teacher relationships, and with the Akshaya Patra Foundation to provide smart classrooms to underprivileged students.
BYJU's - Future Plans
Byju’s has set its sights on investing up to $200 million in the Byju’s Tuition Center (BTC) over the next 12-18 months, with a goal of enrolling approximately 1 million students in the program within the next 2 years. Byju’s CEO, Byju Raveendran, is currently testing the program in 23 cities and 80 centers and plans to expand it to 500 centers across 200 cities by the end of 2022. Additionally, Byju’s is exploring the possibility of going public within the next 18 months and is also considering acquiring established companies such as the NASDAQ-listed 2U Inc.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions about BYJU’s:
When was BYJU’s founded?
BYJU’s was founded in the year 2011.
What is BYJU’s tagline?
BYJU’s tagline is “Fall in love with learning”.
What has made BYJU’s successful?
BYJU’s success can be attributed to its freemium business model and its innovative approach of providing knowledge through highly creative visual content, personalized learning, and other facilities. BYJU’s has successfully blended technology and education to offer effective learning experiences for students.
Who is the owner of BYJU’s?
Byju Raveendran is the founder of BYJU’s. The parent organization of BYJU’s is Think and Learn Private Ltd.
Who is Byju Raveendran’s wife?
Byju Raveendran’s wife is Divya Gokulnath, who is also an entrepreneur, educator, and co-founder and director at BYJU’s.
What is the BYJU’s learning app?
The BYJU’s Learning App is an education technology platform that offers academic content for school-going children ranging from class 6 – 12 for three years, under its social impact initiative ‘Education for All’.
How much is BYJU’s revenue?
BYJU’s reported a revenue of Rs 490 crore during FY 2017-2018, which increased to Rs 1,430 crore during FY 2018-2019. As of 2020, BYJU’s has reported a revenue of Rs 2,800 crore.
Who are BYJU’s competitors?
BYJU’s competitors in the edtech industry include Meritnation.com, Vedantu, Teachable, Khan Academy, Simplilearn, Schoolwise, and Toppr.
How can one become a teacher in BYJU’s?
To become a teacher in BYJU’s, one needs to record a video of themselves teaching any concept in front of the camera for around 15 minutes. Additionally, they need to record another video of themselves solving two question papers of the subject grade that they have applied for.
