Hurun Global Rich List 2022: Jumping 916 ranks over the last two years and with a wealth of US$3.3 billion, Byju Raveendran and family have been ranked as the 3rd third richest entrepreneur from the education sector in the world. This year, Byju’s acquired Aakash Educational Services for US$1bn, acquired Great Learning for US$600mn, and acquired US-based digital reading platform Epic Games for US$500mn. Byju’S the learning app is an ed-tech startup founded by Bjyu Raveendran in 2011. Son of physics and mathematics teachers from Azhikode town in Kannur district of Kerala, Byju Raveendran was a math teacher who turned into an entrepreneur.
Byju Raveendran – Who is He?
In the initial days, Raveendran had set up a platform known as ‘Think and Learn’ in 2011. In 2013 he had managed to raise around $9 million in a Series A round of funding from Aarin Capital. This paved the way for him to launch Byju’s just a few years later in 2015. In 2018 the entrepreneur won the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award under the Start-up category. Within just three months of having founded the education platform, it grew to a membership base of around 20 lakh students.
He began the start-up on a freemium model that trained students for some of the country’s most competitive exams. This included the likes of exams such as IIT-JEE, NEET, CAT and even IAS exams. He also included some international exams such as GRE and GMAT.
Over the course of just a few years, the company has grown tremendously and is often dubbed as ‘India’s most valuable start-up’. As of April 2021, the company had a valuation of around $16.5 billion. It has over 15 million students on its platform and over 900,000 paid subscribers. In a span of around six years, what this entrepreneur has achieved through education and shared learning has proven to be beyond just simple success, one could say that it was a pioneering initiative.
Byju’s IPO Ahead
During the last week, Byju’s has raised $800 million in fresh funding as part of a pre-IPO round, the education technology firm said on Friday. The round, which comes ahead of its planned initial public offering (IPO), values the Bengaluru-based company at about $22 billion, people aware of the development told News18.com. Sumeru Ventures, Vitruvian Partners, and BlackRock were the other investors who participated in the capital raising.
The company will look to file papers for an IPO and list in the next 9-12 months, they said. Byju’s was earlier planning to float its shares in the United States through the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) route. However, it is taking a relook at the plan, the sources said.
About Byju’s
The ed-tech company is valued at around $4 million–$6 million, making Byju one of the richest young entrepreneurs in India. It has about 12,000 employees and trainees. Byju’S has been backed by investors like Mark Zuckerberg and Tencent. The Byju’S application, focused on school children from grades one to twelve (K-12), has enlisted a total of over 64 million downloads.
Read all the Latest Business News and Breaking News here
Comments
0 comment