The Tencent, Naspers and BCC-backed educational course provider secured the funding at a $16.5bn valuation, adding to $1bn it raised in April.
Byju’s, an India-based online learning portal backed by corporates Bennett Coleman & Co (BCC), Naspers and Tencent, has secured Rs 25bn ($340m) in funding, the Economic Times reported on Saturday.
Investment bank UBS Group, private investor Eric Yuan, investment management group Blackstone, Abu Dhabi government-backed ADQ and Phoenix Rising–Beacon Holdings all took part in the round, according to regulatory filings seen by ET.
The cash injection is part of a $1.5bn round Byju’s began raising in April this year, sources privy to the matter told ET, and it valued the company at $16.5bn post-money.
The $1bn first close was co-led by Baron Funds, B Capital Group and XN Exponent Holding and backed by Silver Lake Management, Owl Ventures, T Rowe Price, Disruptive Technology Solutions, Footpath Ventures, Prudential Assurance Company, GSV and Olay and Investments.
Byju’s runs an online education platform targeting young learners, providing courses from pre-school stage to graduate level. It has been acquiring peers in its home country, including Aakash, White Hat Jr and Toppr, and plans to use the fresh funding to buy additional startups.
Baron Funds, B Capital Group and XN Exponent had already backed a $457m series F round for Byju’s in March this year, investing with MC Global Edtech Investment, Arison Holdings, TCDS and Tiga Investments, after BlackRock and T Rowe Price had supplied an initial $122m in December 2020.
The company received $500m in a round in September 2020 round valuing it at $10.8bn. The round was led by Silver Lake and also backed by Tiger Global Management, General Atlantic, Owl Ventures, DST Global and Bond Capital.
General Atlantic had supplied $200m for Byju’s seven months earlier at an $8bn valuation, a deal which followed a $200m round in January 2020 featuring Tiger Global. It came after Qatar Investment Authority and Owl Ventures co-led a $150m round in mid-2019, valuing Byju’s at $5.75bn post-money.
Naspers Ventures, a corporate venturing subsidiary of media and e-commerce firm Naspers now under the auspices of internet group Prosus and rebranded to Prosus Ventures, led a $540m round for the company the year before, investing alongside Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board and General Atlantic.
The 2018 round included primary and secondary investments and valued Byju’s at roughly $3.7bn. It had collected $244m in 2017 across rounds that included $40m provided by Tencent at an $800m valuation in July.
Media conglomerate BCC’s Times Internet unit, Sequoia Capital, Sofina, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative had all contributed to a $50m round for the company in 2016. Its other investors include Verlinvest and Aarin Capital.