How BYJU's Became the Most Valued

Startup of India?

Imagine you are sitting in a packed class, and the

teacher is explaining an important concept. It
appears that everyone else is understanding the
teacher's words and nodding their head in unison,
you are feeling a bit off beat as thel explanation is
simply going over your head. Does this scenario
resonate with you? Whether you accept it or not,
such situations have happened at least once in a
student's life. Every person has his or her pace of
learning, and it is not possible for the teacher to take
care of each one in the class.

Thankfully, the Edtech sector is growing fast enough

to fill this gap. And talking about Edtech in India, one
name that can't be missed is BYJU’s. Read on to find
out how an engineer's passion for teaching led him
to start the world’s most valued ed-tech company.

BYJU's was founded in the year 2011 by Byju

Raveendran. He is India's youngest billionaire with a
net worth of $3.05 billion as per Forbes list of
India's 100 Richest People (2020). BYJU's The
Learning App was launched in 2015.

Lets go through the Exciting Journey of BYJU’s and

also discover more about BYJU’s Success Story,
Latest News, History, Founders, Funding, Revenue,
Competitors, Acquisitions and more
BYJU's - Company Highlights
Startup Name BYJU'S
Headquarter Bangalore
Founder Byju Raveendran
Sector Edtech
Founded 2011
Valuation $12 Billion (November 2020)
Total Funding $2.48 Billion
Revenue Rs 2,800 Cr revenue (FY20)
Parent OrganizationThink and Learn Private Ltd
Website byjus.com

BYJU's - Latest News

June, 2021 - BYJU'S turns the most valued startup
of India, surpassing Paytm. The Bangalore-based
startup raises $350 million in the recent round of
funding led by the UBS Group and Zoom founder,
Eric Yuan, Blackstone, and other companies that
valued the company at $16.5 billion.

April 8, 2021 - BYJU’S launches global one-on-one

learning platform ‘BYJU’S Future School’. The new
platform will be available in 6 countries - USA, UK,
Australia, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico.

April 7, 2021 - BYJU’s is all set to go public before

April 2023

January 13, 2021 - BYJU’s signed a deal to acquire

brick & mortar test prep leader Aakash Educational
Services Ltd. for $1 billion. Aakash Institute has
200+ brick and mortar centers and tutors students
to get admission to engineering and medical
schools
November 2020 - BYJU's hit $12 Billion valuation in
its recent round of funding of $200 million led by
BlackRock and T Rowe Price

September 2020 - BYJU's acquired LabInApp, a

startup that offers lab-like simulations for science
students on a mobile app, for an undisclosed value.
Also BYJU's raised $500 Million as a fresh funding
round from Silver Lake.

August 2020 - BYJU’s acquired Edtech startup

WhiteHat Jr. for $300 million for an all-cash deal.
This makes the 18-month-old Mumbai-
headquartered WhiteHat Jr. that offers online coding
classes to school-going students in India and the
U.S. the fastest exit story at this size in the Indian
startup ecosystem. WhiteHat Jr. will continue to
operate as a separate entity for now.

June 2020 - BYJU's raised money from the first-

ever female-founded VC firm ‘BOND’. The funding
amount was not disclosed. The $1.25Bn VC fund
was co-founded by Mary Meeker, writer of the
influential ‘Internet Trends’ report and former Kleiner
Perkins member. With this fundraise, BYJU’s has
now become the second most valued startup from
India, edging ahead of Oyo Rooms, the now troubled
budget hotel chain. At present, digital payments
giant Paytm is leading the way with a $16 billion
market valuation

About BYJU's and How BYJU's Works

The Bangalore-based educational technology

platform BYJU’s is an online tutoring and coaching
firm that was started in the year 2011 and runs on a
freemium model. BYJU’s parent company is ‘Think
and Learn Pvt Ltd’. The main aim of BYJU's is to
provide coaching through online video lectures for
students of class 1 to class 12 and also for people
who prepare for competitive exams like IIT – JEE,
NEET, CAT, GRE, and GMAT.
BYJU's - the Learning app was launched in the year
2015 and has been a huge success. It is used by
more than 15 million students all over the world and
has 9,00,000 paid subscribers. The app helps the
students to learn on their own rather than rely on
spoon-feeding. Its approach combines the re-
invention of learning, world-class teachers, proven
pedagogical methods, and personalized learning.

BYJU's Founder
Byju Raveendran is the founder of BYJU's Classes,
the education Technology firm whose tagline/slogan
is “Fall in love with learning”.

Byju Raveendran, BYJU's founder and CEO, was

born in 1980 in Azhikode, Kerela. He has a B.Tech
(mechanical engineering) from Government
Engineering College in Kannur, Kerela. Before
starting BYJU's , Byju Raveendran was working in a
multinational shipping firm as a service engineer.
However, teaching was his passion and inspired him
to start BYJU’s

Besides being an entrepreneur and teacher, Byju

Raveendran is also an expert sports person active in
six different sports. He played football, cricket, table
tennis, and badminton at the university level.
Popularly known as Byju sir among his students,
Byju cleared CAT twice with 100 percentile. He never
joined any IIM, though.
How was BYJU’s Started?

Coming from Azhikode, a small village in Kerela, Byju

Raveendran was an engineer with a shipping
company based in the UK. While he was working, he
started to help his friends prepare for the CAT exam,
an entrance exam for getting into the best business
schools of India. To test himself, Byju also gave the
exam and secured 100 percentile! He did not join
any of the IIMs but started teaching students for
their mathematics exams.
Initially, he took mathematics workshops for free
and then started charging a fee when he was
confident about his prowess. At one point his
workshops were so popular that more than 20000
students participated in one such workshop. In the
year 2009, he started to record videos of the
workshops he organized.

His former students who graduated from the IIMs

encouraged him to start BYJU’s classes. ‘Think and
Learn Pvt Ltd’ was then formed to create content for
school students. He launched Byju’s – The Learning
App in 2015, and the app was downloaded by more
than 5.5 million people in the first year itself.

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 works on a freemium business
model wherein it offers customers both
complementary and paid (premium) services. The
company asks the students to submit their details
on its application or website and offers them a free
15 days trial. Once the free trial is exhausted, the
student has to buy the courses from BYJU’s to
access the complete content. The company
provides one-to-one mentoring to its subscribers
and also provides feedback to the child’s parents.
BYJU’s also offers classroom coaching in Noida,
Gurgaon, and some other areas

BYJU’s generates revenue in three

ways:

 The first one is through the app. After the free

trial of 15 days, students have to purchase the
courses to continue their educational journey on
BYJU’s. The app offers a variety of test series,
 courses, etc. which actually compels people to
make the purchase.
 BYJU’s offers electronic tablets that customers
need to procure when they buy the course of
their choice. This tablet has the videos, tests,
practice questions, quizzes, etc. pertaining to
that course.
 The third revenue generation mechanism is
through classroom teaching. These classes are
restricted to only a few cities.

BYJU's - Funding and Investors

BYJU's Total Funding till date is around $2.83

Billion. BYJU's hit $16.5 Billion valuation in its
recent round of funding of $350 million led by UBS
Group, Zoom founder, Blackstone and others.
the year 2016, BYJU's became the first company in
Asia to receive funding from the Chan-Zuckerberg
Initiative, an initiative by Facebook founder Mark
Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla chain.

The table below covers BYJU's

funding details.

Date Stage Amount Lead Investors

March 2016 Series C $75 Million Sequoia Capital India & Sofina

September Chan Zuckerberg Initiative & Sequoia Capital

Series D $50 Million
2016 India

December
Series E $15 Million IFC Venture Capital Group & InnoVen Capital
2016

March 2017 Series F $30 Million Verlinvest

August 2017 Corporate Round $40 Million Tencent Holdings

December $ 540
Venture Round Prosus & Naspers
2018 Million

$332
March 2019 Private Equity Round General Atlantic
Million

March 2019 Private Equity Round $31 Million General Atlantic & Tencent Holdings

$150
July 2019 Private Equity Round Qatar Investment Authority
Million

January 2020 Private Equity Round $200 Tiger Global Management

 Date Stage Amount Lead Investors

Million

$200
Februray 2020 Private Equity Round General Atlantic
Million

$123
August 2020 - DST Global
Million

September Fresh Financing $500

Silver Lake
2020 Round Million

November $200
Fresh Round BlackRock, T Rowe Price
2020 Million

$350
June 2021 Fresh Round UBS Group, Eric Yuan, Blackstone
Million

March 2017, a case study on BYJU's was featured in

Harvard Business School's curriculum. It is indeed
one of the biggest achievements for any company
from a non-monetary perspective. And that is when
Byju’s started operating on a global platform.
Challenges faced by BYJU's

As said by Byju Raveendran, the founder of BYJU's,

converting the students to paid subscribers after the
free trial ends is a major challenge for BYJU's. The
company is also working towards expanding to
other English speaking countries, and finding
suitable partners to assist with this expansion is the
second challenge.

BYJU's - Competitors/Alternatives

People are rapidly moving towards digitization and

adapting e-learning. Because of this revolution,
many other companies with a model similar to
BYJU’s are focusing on ed-tech. BYJU’s major
competitors are Meritnation.com, Vedantu,
Teachable, Khan Academy, Simplilearn, Schoolwise,
and Toppr.

BYJU's - Revenue and Valuation

BYJU's reported revenue was Rs 490 crore in the FY

2017-2018, and it increased to Rs 1,430 crore in the
FY 2018-2019, Rs 2,800 Cr revenue (FY20)

November 2020 - BYJU's hit $12 Billion valuation in

its recent round of funding of $200 million led by
BlackRock and T Rowe Price

June 2021 - BYJU's was valued at $16.5 Billion and

became the most valued startup of India after the
recent round of funding by UBS Group, Eric Yuan,
Blackstone, and others.

BYJU's – Acquisitions

BYJU's has acquired various companies to

date. Here is the
details of BYJU's Acquisitions.

About Company Value

Company

January A customised learning guidance platform for K8-

Vidyartha Rs. 50 crore
2017 K12 students

July 2017 TutorVista Online tutoring services platform Undisclosed

July 2017 Edurite Audio-visual educational content provider Undisclosed

A platform that aids kids to learn math in a fun

July 2018 Math Adventures Undisclosed
way

January Platform offers educational courses with the use

Osmo $120 million
2019 of games, videos and other materials

Offers online coding classes to school-going

August 2020 WhiteHat Jr. $300 million
students in India and the US

September LabInApp Offers lab-like simulations for science students Undisclosed

 About Company Value
Company

2020 on a mobile app.

Aakash Helps students get admission to engineering

January
Educational and medical schools by providing coaching for $1 Billion
2021
Services Ltd entrance exams

BYJU's - Growth

BYJU’s as a startup is pretty innovative and has

garnered massive success in the market. It follows
rigorous advertising strategies. Shahrukh Khan, one
of the most prominent actors of Bollywood, is the
brand ambassador of BYJU’s. The company has
captured the Indian market and has established its
presence in the Middle East as well. BYJU's intends
to expand to the United States, the United Kingdom,
South Africa, and other global markets. To expand
its footprints in the USA, BYJU's acquired US-based
learning platform Osmo in January 2019. The
company also tied up with Disney to launch an early
learning app for classes 1-3.

BYJU's was also in the news recently as it took a

positive step during the coronavirus crisis. Since
schools in different parts of India were shut down
due to the coronavirus outbreak, BYJU's made its
learning app free for the students till the end of April
2020 so that students could enjoy uninterrupted
learning

. BYJU's targeted to double its revenues to $1 billion

in the financial year that ended in March 2021, which
it did effortlessly. Furthermore, with the start of the
next financial year, money has already started
pouring in for BYJU's. With the latest tranche of
investment from the UBS Group, Eric Yuan,
Blackstone, and others, the Bangalore-based startup
has been successful in raising around $350 Million.
This fresh round of investment of June 2021 that
valued the Edtech giant at $16.5 Billion,
geared BYJU's ahead of Paytm, which was valued
at $16 Billion, to the crown position, making it
the most valued startup of India.

BYJU’S – The Learning App SWOT

Analysis

Strengths

First
Mover Advantage - Byju's has first mover advantage in n
umber of segments. It has experimented in various areas 
Strategy. The Strategy & Execution solutions & strategies 
has helped Byju's App in coming up with unique solution 
to tap the un-catered markets.

Diverse Products – Byju’s offer different varieties of

products. Content is available in all type of formats like
stories, visuals and theories as well. Also available in
regional languages. They provide a wide variety of
options to students.

Strong Finance – The company’s balance sheet shows str
ong financial position

High Customer Retention – Byju’s is great in students en
gagement into any study material. Research proves that 
on an average a student spends minimum of 40 mins onc
e they open Byju’s App.

Acquisition of competitor (White hat Jr. ) – Byjus has rec
ently acquired White Hat Jr. for $300 million. Together th
ey will provide coding classes to students.

Customer Loyalty – Customers are loyal towards the com
pany because of the good quality products and services.

Weaknesses
Low Return On Investment – Even when the company h
as strong balance sheet, the return on investment is low 
due to high expenses which it has to incur

Bad Reviews – There is two sides of each coin. So, along 
with positive reviews there are also negative reviews by 
many customers who are not satisfied with the service an
d find it expensive.

Inventory Management – The company faces challenges 
with proper inventory management.


Less US Children Enrollments – The company wish to 
grow in International market but the numbr of US Childre
n enrollments is declining.

Opportunities

Increased Trend of Online Education – With the increase 
of e-commerce in India, the trend of education has also i
ncreased over the last few years. Everyone want the com
fort of being anywhere for studying.

Education due to Covid -19 – Education sector has adver
sely affected due to Covid-19. It has given great opportun
ity to Byju’s to increase its market as more and more peo
ple are dependent on online education.

NEP 2020 encourages online education – The New Educ
ation Policy has laid great emphasis on online education 
and the Govt. is completely supporting it.

Introduce Professional Courses – Currently Byjus is only 
providing classes for school students and preparation of c
ompetitive exams like JEE and CAT. Further it can provide 
classes in technical and professional courses, extra curric
ular activities, coding, etc.

Untapped Semi-Urban and Rural India – Byju’s still h
as opportunities for targeting major segment of India i.e. 
Rural and Semi- Urban. These people are also adapting th
e new trend.
Threats

Business Model can be imitated – Byju’s business model 
can be imitated by new entrants quite easily. So, this is a 
threat for the company.

Data Privacy – Data privacy is very essential for compani
es like Byju’s.

Competitors – This being an era of online education, mor
e and more companies are coming in this sector. So, ther
e is always a threat of competitors and its strategies.

Economic Recession – This is also the time of economic 
recession. People are willing to spend low amounts of mo
ney and also over essential products. So, they might not af
ford online classes for their children along with the school 
going on.
BYJU's - FAQs
When did BYJU's Start?

BYJU's was founded in the year 2011

What is BYJU's Tagline?

BYJU's tagline is "Fall in love with learning"

Why is BYJU's Successful?

BYJU's functions on a Freemium Business Model.

The approach of BYJU's in providing knowledge with
highly creative visual content, one-on-one learning
and other facilities has led to the success of BYJU's.
BYJU's has been able to rightly blend the technology
and knowledge to today's generation.
Who is the Owner of BYJU's?

Byju Raveendran founded BYJU's in 2011. Think and

Learn Private Ltd is the parent organisation of
BYJU's

How much is BYJU's Revenue?

BYJU's reported revenue was Rs 490 crore in the FY

2017-2018, and it increased to Rs 1,430 crore in the
FY 2018-2019, Rs 2,800 Cr revenue (FY20)

Who are the competitors of BYJU's?

BYJU’s major competitors are Meritnation.com,

Vedantu, Teachable, Khan Academy, Simplilearn,
Schoolwise, and Toppr.
CONCLUSION

The Byju’s App is known for its self-paced learning

experience
by enabling the students crack down difficult
concepts. The
app uses a host of modern techniques like web-
based
learning, visual graphics, video-based instruction,
etc. to
provide an immersive learning experience. These
innovations
are highly helpful for the students to understand
basic
concepts and enable them to prepare for exams.
From this
study, it is clear that Byju’s app has transformed
Indian
education scenario by effectively incorporating
Constructive
methods of teaching and learning. Most of the
respondents
agree that the app is interactive, comfortable and
effective.
But the study also finds that some users are not able
to
effectively use this App for personalized learning as
they are
not regular subscribers of the app. regular
subscription is on
the expensive side for average Indian students.
Byju's App is
striving hard to transform education scenario and
will surely
reach to a mass audience if it can become more
affordable.