Byju’s is a Bengaluru-based education technology start-up that has successfully become India’s biggest company in the education technology niche. Byju’s has recently announced to be in advanced talks with a small rival company, Toppr which is also an education technology start-up.
Byju’s has been a beneficiary of the COVID-19 pandemic as the demand for education technology was on a record-breaking. The start-up has scaled instantly during the peak COVID time and was caught up in the investment spree by domestic and international investors.
Since then, Byju’s has not looked back and with these infusions of funds, the company has started to invest in the market, hire new talent and expand its operations through acquisitions. In a recent update on the story, the Mumbai-based after-school learning application- Toppr is in advanced talks with Byju’s to be acquired by the company for USD 150 million.
According to a report by Times of India, it is thereby mentioned that the acquisition would be done with half cash and half equity. The report said that the investors have been given an option to choose their mode of investment and select between cash and equity.
Toppr is a Mumbai-based education technology start-up that is an after-school learning platform that offers learning sources and entrance exam studies, together. Founded back in 2013 by Hemanth Goteti and Zishaan Hayath. According to the company profile on Crunchbase, it is mentioned that the start-up’s total funding to date is worth USD 112 million that it has raised in over 11 financing rounds.
It is no doubt that the start-up is a small-scale business when compared to Byju’s. However, it was on the list of the latter for quite some time now, as mentioned by an anonymous person. As the market is getting polarised with few companies having a lot of funds.
Toppr has a user base of around 13 million in India with students from class 1 and 12th.
On the other hand, Byju’s has been on an acquisition spree for along time now. The edtech platform is currently midway in acquiring Aakash Institutes for a consideration of USD 1 billion. As mentioned in a report by Times of India, the company has also acquired WhiteHat Jr for USD 300 million.
Byjus’ has collected the most capital this year despite the global pandemic. With schools, colleges and other educational institutions being closed because of COVID-19, education technology start-ups have grown phenomenally because of the high rise in demand. The company’s current valuation is estimated to be at USD 12 billion that is twelve times the Unicorn.
