Byju’s Acquire Toppr and Great Learning For a Total Sum of USD 600 Million
The acquisition deals take total number of Byju’s acquisitions to 6 in just 2021 with the total number reaching to 15
On 25th July 2021, it was reported that Byju’s will acquire Toppr and Great Learning for a total sum of USD 600 million. The acquisition deals take total number of Byju’s acquisitions to 6 in just 2021 with the total number reaching to 15.
According to the regulatory filing filed by the company, the acquisition deal is a cash and equity shares deal.
The Ed-tech Unicorn recently raised USD 1.5 billion from BS Group, Abu Dhabi sovereign fund ADQ, and Blackstone Group LP among others, which took company’s total valuation to USD 16.5 billion and overtook initial public offering (IPO)-bound Paytm’s USD 16 billion valuation, and became most valued Indian start-up.
The acquisition of Toppr is expected to cost USD 150 million to Byju’s with another USD 450 million for the acquisition of Great Learning.
Byju’s have spent more than USD 2.2 billion in 2021 alone in acquiring complementary businesses.
The company is expected to enter the upskilling and reskilling segment with the acquisition of Great Learning with tough competition from upGrad and Blackstone-backed Simplilearn. The acquisition of Great Learning will also help company’s offerings in the international market.
Great Learning is a 7-year old company that provides higher learning degree, diploma and certificate courses across domains such as data science, digital marketing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, in association with recognized universities globally.
According to the regulatory filing by Byju’s, Great Learning’s existing shareholders LMK Holdings Ltd and Matrix Benefit Trust have been allotted Byju’s Series F preference shares worth approximately USD 98 million.
Toppr was founded in 2013 by IIT Bombay alumni Zishaan Hayath and Hemanth Goteti. It has raised about $112 Mn across 11 founding rounds from marquee investors like Kaizenvest, Foundation Holdings, Milestone Trustee Services, Alteria Capital, eight Roads Ventures and WGG International, and , claims to have 35 million monthly active users and 2 million daily active users on its platform.
The two acquisitions further cement Byju’s dominance in India’s edtech sector. While Toppr will strengthen its formidable grip in the K-12 segment, the Great Learning acquisition brings an altogether different business – upskilling for working professionals – for Byju’s.
Earlier last week, Byju’s announced the acquisition of US-based ed-tech company, Epic, and earlier this year, Byju’s acquired tutorial chain Aakash Educational Services Ltd (AESL) in a cash and stock deal estimated at USD 950 million.
