Byju's acquires licences of hundreds of characters from Disney; to use cartoon characters to teach math, science.
The firm has raised $204 million from nine investors such as Sequoia Capital, Light Speed Ventures, and Aarin Capital, and hopes to hit the $ 1 billion valuation mark this year.
The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday said it has searched the Bengaluru-located office and residential premises of Edtech major BYJU's and its CEO and co-founder Raveendran Byju and seized 'incriminating' documents and digital data as part of a foreign exchange violation probe.
Byju's, says Anita Kishore, has given the founders of the businesses it has acquired the independence to operate separately and maintain their core culture.
'Criticism is one thing, and cynicism is quite another.' 'However, we are undaunted by this negativity because we know the truth.'
While BlackRock is an existing investor in Byju's, T Rowe joined as a new investor.
Karan Bajaj, founder of WhiteHat Jr, on Wednesday announced his exit from the company, a year after the coding platform was acquired by edtech giant Byju's. Trupti Mukker, who was the head of customer experience and delivery, will now lead the organisation. In a post on LinkedIn, Bajaj shared the announcement of his departure from a company he founded in 2018.
Byju's has emerged as the leader in the Indian education-tech sector. They are pioneering technology shaping the future of learning for millions of school students in India.
Edtech firm Byju's has rolled out a 4-tier tech-driven internal sales process replacing its existing direct sales process to check mis-selling, the company said on Monday. The development comes against the backdrop of summons issued to the company by child rights body National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) over allegations that the edtech firm is indulging in malpractices to lure parents and children to buy their courses. Under the new sales model, interested customers having minimum monthly income of Rs 25,000 will be eligible to buy courses from Byju's and will need to give consent for placing the order and before closing of the sales.
'We have gone through more than what any company will go through.'
The legal battle between Byju's and lenders in the US on the edtech firm's $1.2-billion term loan B (TLB), along with the company skipping an interest payment of $40 million on the loan, has made the other investor Davidson Kempner Capital Management, "extremely concerned", according to the people familiar with the matter. They said Byju's has closed a Rs 2,000-crore ($250 million) round from the US-based investment firm and it may stop or consider slowing down the flow of various tranches of that capital to the company. It may also decide not to provide any new funding or participate in any such round in the future, the sources said.
Byju Classes' founder Byju Raveendran, Zomato co-founder Gaurav Gupta, CEO of Antara Senior Living, Tara Singh Vachani, Vinati Organics' MD & CEO Vinati Mutreja and Swapan Mehra, CEO of Iora Ecological Solutions are among 115 young leaders.
It's also among the top five most valuable Internet companies in India, reports Yuvraj Malik.
'We want to be in kids' learning like what Disney is to kids' entertainment.'
'Kids like something when it is interesting, focused, and offers scope for self-exploration.' 'We teach them how to learn, not force them,' Byju Raveendran tells Bibhu Ranjan Mishra.
Start-up entrepreneurs nearly doubled their contribution to philanthropy in 2022 but their numbers shrank. They decreased to only three (from five) in the top 100 of the Edelgive Hurun India Philanthropy List of 2022 which was released on Thursday. Over the year, no new start-up whizz kid joined the list either. The three start-up entrepreneurs who made it to the list contributed collectively Rs 166 crore in FY22, nearly double that of Rs 83 crore in FY21.
Pharmaceuticals, along with software and services, also added the most new entrants on the rich list 2018.
This is the first investment in Asia from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which was founded by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan
Don't look for a volunteering job for money, but as an investment for life, advises management consultant Virender Kapoor.
The PE biggie has committed to pumping money into Jio Platforms, Byju's and Reliance Retail so far this year - all marquee names in their respective sectors.
Unacademy is conducting another round of job cuts and laying off 350 employees or 10 per cent of its workforce of 3,500, as the SoftBank-backed edtech firm targets profitability and reduces costs, according to an internal note sent by Gaurav Munjal, co-founder and CEO of Unacademy group, to the staff. Munjal said the restructuring exercise would affect about 10 per cent of employees across the group. "I am deeply saddened to share that we will have to say goodbye to some of our extremely talented Unacademy employees," said Munjal in the letter addressed to employees and reviewed by Business Standard.
'I always say I am a teacher by choice and an entrepreneur by chance.'
Next month, the edtech start-up, that teaches coding to kids online, is launching operations in five new markets - the UK, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.
Forty Indians entered the billionaires' club in the pandemic-stricken 2020 to take the number of those in the coveted list to 177 people, a report said on Tuesday. Mukesh Ambani continued to be the wealthiest Indian with a networth of $83 billion. The head of Reliance Industries witnessed a 24 per cent jump in fortunes and climbed up one spot to be the eighth richest globally, as per the Hurun Global Rich List. Gautam Adani from Gujarat, who has had a spectacular rise in fortunes in the last few years, saw his wealth almost doubling to $32 billion in 2020 and climbed 20 places to be the 48th richest person globally and the second wealthiest Indian.
Venture Intelligence data shows that during January to July 2020, investors infused $998 million in 31 deals. The total number of deals reported in 2019 was 42 worth $404 million.
The turmoil, if you read the headlines, is about the so-called funding winter. Deep down, though, the question is one of the common direction in which founders and investors need to pull, points out Suveen Sinha.
In the past few days, many companies, including fashion e-tailer Nykaa, food delivery platform Zomato, logistics and delivery firm Delhivery, insurance discovery platform PolicyBazaar, eyewear retail chain Lenskart, and edtech and online tutoring firm Byju's, have openly spoken about their IPO plans.
A slew of Indian firms, including Flipkart, Byju's and Zomato, is building a path to profitability and diversifying into newer business segments ahead of mega-IPO plans.
'There is no doubt at all that Jio's disruption of the mobile broadband market was a turning point for India's digital economy.'
The Chinese government is imposing severe restrictions on their tech companies - whether it is on data security, marketing practices or floating an IPO. Should this be music to the ears of Indian start-ups and home-grown private equity (PE) funds? Ask Indian start-ups and the answer is a resounding "yes".
While Pokemon Go prompted people to get out of their chairs and take a walk, Trakinvest became a potential hiring platform for brokerage firms. Anita Babu on gamification in 2017.
Over 10 Indian start-ups with total valuations of $84 billion (some are planning fresh fund-raising) are bracing to launch initial public offerings (IPOs) in the next 36 months. While the size of their IPOs is under discussion, estimates are that they would together raise a minimum of over $8-10 billion during the initial listing.
'In the end, investing is about people.' 'If you get the right people, they make things happen,' Mengistu Alemayehu tells Shyamal Majumdar.
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