Byju’s, one of the world’s most-valued ed-tech startups, announced that it has acquired coding ed-tech startup Whitehat Jr. for $300 million, making it one of the biggest deals in the ed-tech space.
Byju’s world’s most valued ed-tech startup
BYJU’S- The world’s most valuable ed-tech company and the creator of India’s most loved school learning app, offers highly adaptive, engaging, and effective learning programs for students in classes 1 -12 (K-12) and competitive exams like JEE, NEET and IAS.
The flagship product of Byju’s-The Learning App, for classes 4-12 in 2015 has over 47 million registered students and 3.5 million annual paid subscriptions. With an average time of 71 minutes being spent by a student on the app every day from 1700+ cities, the app is creating a whole new way of learning.
Byju’s is now a decade old unicorn. The new funding makes Byju’s second most valued startup in India, overtaking hospitality startup Oyo, which was last valued at $10 billion.
Byju’s acquisition strategy to strengthen its dominance in ed-tech space
In July 2017, Education technology start-up Byju’s (Think and Learn Pvt. Ltd) acquired global education company Pearson Plc.’s TutorVista and Edurite, in a move aimed at expanding global reach as well as offerings for students.
In January 2019, Byju’s acquired Osmo, a maker of educational games, for $120 million in its first-ever purchase of a US company. The acquisition will help Byju’s offer learning solutions to children aged between three and eight by tapping into Osmo’s physical-to-digital technology and content.
Byju’s is in advanced stages of talks to acquire Doubtnut, a two-year-old education learning app in 2020, as the Indian ed-tech giant looks to expand its reach in smaller cities and towns of India.
Apart from these major acquisitions, Byjus has also acquired small startups like Math adventure and Vidyarth.
How this acquisition will help Byju’s to expand its reach
WhiteHat Jr. founded in November 2018 is focussed on helping children between six to 14 years in developing commercial-ready games, animations, and apps online using the fundamentals of coding. WhiteHat Jr. offers four levels of courses – Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Professional – for students in grades 1-9.
Under the leadership of Karan Bajaj, WhiteHat Jr has achieved phenomenal growth in India and the US in a short span of time. WhiteHat Jr became the market leader, by creating coding programs loved by kids.
The vision of Byju’s includes empowering children with the right future skills. WhiteHat Jr’s coding product capabilities, combined with the teaching of Byju’s, expertise and scale, will help expand the learning offerings for school
This acquisition is expected to help BYJU’s with its plans to expand further into the US market. WhiteHat Jr. had recently announced its plans to expand to other global markets like Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand (ANZ) after its growth in the US market. Now through WhiteHat Jr, Byju’s can reach these markets.
BYJU’S is also looking to make significant investments in WhiteHat Jr.’s technology platform and product innovation while expanding the teacher base to cater to demand from new markets.