Online learning platform BYJU'S on Monday announced it has acquired TutorVista and Edurite from Pearson Education.
The move is focused on expanding international reach and creating a diverse product portfolio.
"This partnership will enhance our product offerings and give us access in some of the new markets when we launch our international products. We are excited to work with the talented and experienced team who will come on-board as a part of this acquisition," said Byju Raveendran, Founder and CEO, BYJU'S, in a statement.
TutorVista is an online tutoring brands catering to school and college students in the US and gets about 70% of traffic on its website from the US.
According to a Mint report, it operates in four segments – online tutorials, digital content, information and communication technologies for schools, test preparation and offline coaching to students and management of K-12 schools.
In 2009, Pearson acquired 17% stake in the Bengaluru-based company. It purschased another 59% stake for Rs 577 crore in the beginning of 2011 and increased its stake to 80% in the same year. In February 2013, it acquired the remaining 20%.
TutorVista is promoted by serial entrepreneurs K.Ganesh and Meena Ganesh.
In 2007, it acquired Edurite, which currently sells educational CDs and DVDs.
"We are pleased that a leading online education company in India sees value in the Edurite and TutorVista businesses, brands and employees," said Deepak Mehrotra, Managing Director, Pearson India.
With eight million users and 400,000 annual paid subscribers, BYJU's is a popular learning app among students in classes 4-12.
It has raised about $75 million from Sequoia Capital and Belgian family office Sofina in March 2016. Mint reports that in September, Byju’s raised $50 million in a round led by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, becoming the first Asian investment for the personal fund set up by Facebook Inc. founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan.
In December, the company raised another $15 million from World Bank arm International Finance Corp.
It also raised an undisclosed amount in venture debt from InnoVen Capital. In 2016, it raised about $20 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners in a secondary transaction.
In total, Byju’s has seen a capital infusion of at least $160 million last year.
Founded by Byju Raveendran in November 2011, the company has so far raised close to $200 million in equity and debt funding since inception.
Byju’s provides learning programmes for class 6 to 12 students and preparation programmes for competitive examinations such as JEE, CAT, IAS, GRE and GMAT, among others.
Byju’s plans to expand globally, especially in the US and UK, introduce new subjects beyond physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics as well as roll out products for fourth and fifth grades, Raveendran said in an interview in September last year.
The company claims to have about 8 million app downloads and more than 400,000 paid consumers.
(With IANS inputs)