Byju’s to enter league of giants with estimated valuation reaching new high; check out the list here

Rank 2 | BYJU’s | Sector: Online Education | Valued at: $13 billion

Online learning startup Byju’s has been on a fund-raising spree and its valuation has hit new highs. The Bangalore-based digital-education pioneer is getting ready to raise $150 million from UBS group which will value the startup at about
$16.5 billion, reports suggest. 

Earlier on April 11, there were reports that Byju’s had raised about $1 billion from new investors, including former Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin's B Capital Group, Baron Funds and XN. 

With the valuation now estimated around $16.5 billion (approx Rs 1,22,183 crore), we looked at where the ed-tech startup stands compared to some of the Indian giants in terms of their market capitalisation. 

On the BSE, there are about 39 companies having a market cap of above Rs 1 lakh crore. Given Byju’s estimated valuation, as per media reports, it is to join the club of industry giants having similar valuation such as Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Hindustan Zinc and Tata Steel. 

Earlier in an interview, Byju’s founder Byju Raveendran had said that they plan to go public in the next two years. "We are seriously thinking of an 18-24 months timeline to look at a public offering. But it can take a bit longer since we are in no hurry and will look at the right market timing," he had said.

Byju’s is also in talks to acquire Great Learning and Gradeup for $400 million. On April 5, Byju's had acquired Aakash Educational Services Ltd (AESL) at a deal close to $1 billion (about Rs 7,300 crore), making it the biggest acquisition by Byju's to date.

Some of BYJU’s investors include Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Ventures, Tencent, General Atlantic, Tiger Global, T. Rowe Price, BlackRock, Tiger Global Management, Owl Ventures. 

India’s startup space has seen a flurry of funding activity in 2021, with 12 companies entering the unicorn club (valuation of over $1 billion) this year, including Meesho, PharmEasy, ShareChat, Groww and Urban Company.