[Funding] Yuri Milner of DST Global to invest $400 million in the EdTech StartUp Byju's

After the National Education Policy, the education system in India is about to change. Thus, the EdTech Industry faces heavy competition internally. In the middle of the industry shift, Byju's has bagged an investment of $400 million from DST Global, reported Bloomberg. The company, famous for investing in Ola, Swiggy, Flipkart and Udaan, is all set to step into the EdTech Industry. The Investment Firm had also invested in Facebook, Spotify, Alibaba, Twitter and Airbnb.

With this transaction, Byju’s will be the second-biggest Indian startup after Paytm. It will join Paytm and OYO in the Decacorn club. Both the companies are backed by Chinese investor Alibaba.

Byju's Eliminating competition?

Byju Raveendran found the startup 9 years ago. This year, it rose to a company with almost $380 Million in revenue. The company acquired Osmo, a US-based maker of educational games, for $120 million, in January. Later, it was in discussion to acquire DoubtNut, a doubt-solving app for school students for $100 million. Further, it has also made an offer of $300 million all-cash deal to WhiteHat Jr, a one-and-a-half-year-old upstart providing coding classes.

The investment news comes a month after Byju’s raised $23 Mn in Series F from Mary Meeker’s BOND Capital. It recorded an approval to raise $23 Mn with 8,070 Series F preference shares at face value of INR 10 from Bond Capital Asia Holdings Limited. The company said it would utilise funds to meet the working capital and business expansion plans.

Earlier, the company records state that it has over 57 million registered users and over 3.5 million paid subscribers. The app caters k-12 education. It is also adding over 300,000 new subscribers every month. The company is profitable which is a rarity for Indian startups.

The coronavirus lockdown has been a boon for EdTech firms. Growth and funding have amplified hand in hand as students have been forced to learn from home. Further, EdTech Startups have raised about $750 million this year alone, and on track to raise more.