Byju’s in talks to raise $200 mn from BlackRock, T Rowe

Think & Learn, which operates edtech platform BYJU’s, is set to close a fundraise of $200 million from American investment firms, BlackRock and T Rowe, Mint reported. Post the round, the startup will be valued at $12 billion.

In September, the Bengaluru-based company had raised $500 million at a valuation of $10.8 billion from a clutch of investors including private equity firm Silver Lake Partners along with existing investors General Atlantic, Owl Ventures and Tiger Global.

BlackRock, Sands Capital and Alkeon Capital had joined as new investors in the same round later, which led to its valuation jump to $11.1 billion.

In August, founder Byju Raveendran said that it is now in a comfortable position to do an initial public offering (IPO), but hasn’t decided on the timeline yet.

Since the nationwide lockdown in March, Byju’s has added over 25 million new students. At present, it has over 73 million registered students, of which 5.1 million are annual paid subscribers. In the past few months, the firm has launched an online tutoring program for after-school needs of students, apart from introducing its programmes in multiple vernacular languages including Hindi, Kannada, Bengali, Malayalam and Gujarati. 

The firm has also been on an acquisition spree. After the much-hyped White Hat Jr. acquisition, it bought out 3D virtual lab tools provider, LabInApp Technology in September.