Edtech industry leader Byju's is raising nearly $150 million from UBS Group AG, that will take its market valuation to $16.5 billion, reliable sources said on Thursday. UBS Group AG, part of UBS Asset Management, will invest a total of around $300 million in Byju's, people familiar with the deal told IANS.
The leading ed-tech company recently raised nearly $1 billion as part of its 'Series F' funding that included Baron Funds and Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin's B Capital Group.
The latest fund-raising came after Byju's announced to acquire Aakash Educational Services Ltd (AESL) through a strategic merger. The deal size is also pegged at close to $1 billion.
In September last year, Byju's raised $500 million (approximately Rs 3,689 crore) in a funding round led by global technology investment firm Silver Lake. Existing investors Tiger Global, General Atlantic and Owl Ventures also participated in the round that put the edtech startup's valuation at $10.8 billion.
The new investment came barely a month after Byju's acquired WhiteHat Jr, a Mumbai-based coding platform, for $300 million.
Byju's said it has seen over 20 million new students starting learning from its platform for free since the lockdown. The app currently has over 64 million registered students and 4.2 million annual paid subscriptions.
Byju’s recently featured in the 2021 TIME 100 Most Influential Companies list. TIME said that as users of his company's signature app nearly doubled to 80 million during the COVID-19 pandemic, Byju Raveendran, the founder went on a spending spree, fuelled by funding from investors like Tencent and BlackRock.