Rakuten is exiting the online reading platform developer in a $500m acquisition by online education provider Byju’s following $50m in funding.

Online learning portal Byju’s has acquired US-based digital reading platform developer Epic for $500m, facilitating an exit for e-commerce firm Rakuten.

Epic provides a digital reading platform for children aged 12 and under, offering a collection of more than 40,000 books, audiobooks and videos from 250 publishers worldwide. The platform is used by some 2 million teachers and 50 million children, it said.

Following the acquisition, Byju’s expects to consolidate its position across the US market, and plans to invest…