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Byju’s plans to raise another $50-600 million and is in talks with Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund and existing investors to participate in the round, sources said, as the education technology (edtech) giant’s The goal is to be profitable by March next year.
The development comes as the Bengaluru-based company recently raised $250 million from Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and existing investors. In this round, the company’s valuation remained unchanged at $22 billion.
“Byju’s valuation has not changed. The new fundraising process is still ongoing,” said one of the people. “Any new valuations will be determined in the future as it is difficult for investors to do so in this environment.”
Abu Dhabi’s state-owned holding company ADQ has invested in Byju’s. In June 2021, Byju’s raised $350 million from ADQ, UBS, private equity giant Blackstone, Phoenix Rising and Eric Yuan, founder of video conferencing company Zoom. The funding helped Byju’s become the most valuable internet startup at a $16.5 billion valuation, surpassing the $16 billion valuation of fintech firm Paytm, which later went public with its initial public offering (IPO).
Byju’s did not respond when asked to comment on the company’s fundraising plans.
Byju’s raised $800 million in a funding round in March, with founder and CEO Byju Raveendran getting half of that. The company’s valuation rose to $22 billion from $18 billion previously. Raveendran is in talks with a number of international and domestic banks to raise $400 million as a loan to fund 50 percent of the $800 million financing, according to people familiar with the matter.
In 2019, Byju’s received a $150 million investment led by the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar.
In March, Byju’s and QIA teamed up to launch a new Education Technology Commercial and state-of-the-art R&D center in Doha. The new entity in Doha will drive research and innovation to tailor cutting-edge learning solutions for students in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Byju’s has also been announced as the official sponsor of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Through this partnership, Byju’s will leverage its rights to the 2022 FIFA World Cup emblems, emblems and assets to create unique promotions and connect with passionate football fans around the world.
Byju’s has raised approximately $5.7 billion in funding from investors including Sumeru Ventures, Vitruvian Partners, BlackRock, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Sequoia, Silver Lake, Bond Capital, Tencent, General Atlantic, Tiger Global and QIA. The company has more than 150 million learners.
Byju’s founder and CEO, Byju Raveendran, recently said that the company is at the sweet spot of its growth story, with both unit and scale economies in its favor. That means the capital the company will now invest in its business will deliver profitable growth and have a sustainable social impact, he said.
The move comes amid a winter freeze of funds and huge losses.This Education Technology According to its latest financial report, the company recorded a loss of Rs 4,588 crore in the 2020-21 financial year (FY21), 19 times the previous year. The company’s revenue in FY21 was Rs 2,428 crore. Its 2019-20 adjusted revenue was Rs 2,511 crore; adjusted loss was Rs 3,000 crore.
As part of an “optimization” drive, Byju’s will now cut nearly 2,500 jobs, or 5%. It has started to achieve group-level profitability by next March through a three-pronged approach.
It brings K10’s subsidiaries – Meritnation, TutorVista, Scholar and HashLearn – into the India business unit. Other acquisitions Aakash and Great Learning will operate separately. The company is also realigning marketing spend to expand its global reach.
The company also plans to hire 10,000 teachers over the next six months to add to the current 20,000 teachers. In addition to hiring senior leadership, the company is expanding its team to further strengthen its operations.
The company said it has begun to shift its focus to profitable growth. It said the company’s revenue was $2 billion and the company’s FY22 revenue was close to Rs 100 billion, or $1.3 billion.
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