Byju’s acquire US ed-tech firm in a USD 500 million deal

The acquisition deal is the second largest acquisition deal by Byju’s after the company acquired brick-and-mortar coaching network Aakash Institute

Byju’s acquire US ed-tech firm in a USD 500 million deal

On 21st July 2021, it was reported that Byju’s has acquired US-based kids learning platform Epic in a USD 500-million cash-and-stock deal. The acquisition deal is the second largest acquisition deal by Byju’s after the company acquired brick-and-mortar coaching network Aakash Institute, earlier this year for nearly USD 1 billion.

According to the cofounder-Byju Raveendran, the acquisition of the Epic is part of Byju’s strategic to expand into the overseas market, from where the company is expecting an annual revenue of USD 300 million in the current financial year.

In 2019, Byju’s acquired US-based maker of educational games Osmo for USD 120 million, and the company said it aims to invest nearly USD 1 billon in North America over the next couple of years.

Founded by Suren Markosian and Kevin Donahue, Epic has more than 50 million users – children in United States who access digital books for free as well as through subscriptions. Epic had around 20 million users in 2019. After the acquisition, Markosian and Donahue will continue to run the business.

The Byju cofounder Raveendran said, “It is the largest B2C (business-to-consumer) edtech company in the K-12 segment and has a strong product capability that fits well into our overall plan of building an edtech ecosystem.”

Byju’s has been on a fundraising spree in the last 2 years with nearly USD 1 billion raised in 2020. The company used this capital to finance large acquisitions both domestically and internationally. The company has already raised more than USD 1.5 billion this year from investors like UBS Group, Blackstone, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign fund ADQ and others.

Lightspeed Venture Partners, Qatar Investment Authority, Owl Ventures, General Atlantic, Tiger Global, Tencent, Verlinvest and Sofina were some of the early investors of Byju’s.

Raveendran, the cofounder of Byju’s further added and said, “In some of the new markets, we will be in a growth phase, and we will invest to build similar brand and sector awareness (like it did India). With strong organic growth and acquisitions, we will start adding significant numbers in our total revenue and you will see us accelerating over the next many years even on a large base.”

Byju’s is also in acquisition talks with Gradeup and Great Learning and the company is likely to announce the closure of the Toppr deal in the coming weeks.