Online education startup Byju’s is close to raising $200 million in a fresh funding round from American investment firms BlackRock and T. Rowe Price at a valuation of $12 billion, said a person familiar with the matter.
The Bengaluru-based edtech firm had last raised $500 million in September from a group of investors including private equity firm Silver Lake Partners along with existing investors General Atlantic, Owl Ventures and Tiger Global at a valuation of $10.8 billion.
BlackRock, Sands Capital and Alkeon Capital joined as new investors, as part of the same round later, with valuation climbing to $11.1 billion.
The surge in investor interest also catapulted Byju’s into India’s second-most valuable startup, also earning it the decacorn status—the handful of startups that are valued at more than $10 billion.
Since the lockdown, Byju’s has added over 25 million new students on its platform. The app has over 73 million registered students and 5.1 million annual paid subscriptions. It has also introduced an online tutoring program Byju’s Classes to cater to the after-school learning needs of students. Learning programs in multiple vernacular languages like Hindi, Kannada, Bengali, Malayalam and Gujarati have been introduced during the lockdown too.
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