UBS Asset Management to fund Byju’s which makes the total investment of $300 Million from investors.
The online education startup, Byju’s is raising about $150 million from UBS Group AG at a valuation of about $16.5 billion, after this funding round Byju’s will become the most valuable startup.
An entity that is part of UBS Asset Management is making the investment. It is in discussions to invest additional money, which would take its total investment in Byju’s to about $300 million, the people said, who asked not to be identified as the negotiations are private. The startup could rope in another backer to take the fresh funding to $400 million, one of the people said.
Also recently Byju’s raised $1 billion from Facebook Inc. co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group, Baron Funds and XN.
Byju Raveendran founder of Bangalore-based startup Byju’s owns about a third of the company.
Raveendran in an interview said that due to the recent covid situation it has boosted the startup by changing the perspective of parents, teachers and students on learning and the acceptance of online learning. The Byju’s K-12 App has brought over 80 million registered users in India who learn mathematics and science through animated games and videos.
Recently Byju’s has increased its pace of acquisitions which includes a company teaching one-on-one coding to school goers in markets like the U.S., Latin America and Australia besides India. It bought another that specializes in offline test-prep classes for Indian school graduates aspiring to enter ultra-competitive engineering and medical schools.