Byju’s Gets Funding From Mary Meeker’s Fund, Valuation Seen At $10.5 Billion

Byju's surpassed budget hotel room operator Oyo Hotels & Homes to become India's second-most valued startup after the online education platform raised funds from Bond Capital, a venture capital co-founded by Mary Meeker, a person aware of the matter said.

This is the first time Bond Capital has backed an Indian startup.

While Byju's confirmed the funding, it declined to comment on amount and valuation. The person quoted above, however, told BloombergQuint on condition of anonymity that the edtech startup secured the funding at a valuation of $10.5 billion. The valuation of the Byju Raveendran-led company has nearly doubled in the last one year.

Paytm is India's most valued startup at $16 billion after the Vijay Shekhar Sharma-founded online payments platform raised $1 billion last year. Oyo has a valuation of $10 billion.

Byju's fresh fundraising comes months after Tiger Global invested $200 million in the firm at a valuation of around $8 billion. It, however, can't be ascertained if the latest round is part of the same capital-raising or separate.

“Endorsed by millions of students, Byju's has emerged as a clear leader in education technology,” Meeker, general partner at Bond and a former Wall Street securities analyst, well-known for her global ‘Internet Trends' report, said.“We are excited to support a visionary like Byju and his team in their quest to continue to innovate and shape the future of education,” she said in a statement.

The Bengaluru-based startup was founded by Byju Raveendran in 2011, a former teacher, who started with a smartphone app to help students learn and master concepts from math and science using short videos. The firm then also ventured into offering students a variety of programmes, including online coaching for competitive exams such as the Common Aptitude Test and the Indian Administrative Services.

Last year, Byju's acquired U.S.-based Osmo, a startup maker of educational games to transform offline to online learning experience.

Bond Capital's investment into Byju's comes at a time online education in India is seeing its moment of reckoning amid the coronavirus pandemic. Byju's is also offering its content for free for all students.

“We have the opportunity to positively influence how teachers teach, students learn and school's function,” Raveendran, founder and chief executive officer at Byju's, said in another statement. The “classrooms of tomorrow” will have technology at the core and will empower students to cross over from passive to active learning. “The result will be a combination of the best of both online and offline educational offerings.”