Byju raises $30 million capital from Brussel’s Verlinvest

Byju, the education and technology startup, has raised ~$30 million from Brussels based firm Verlinvest at a valuation of $600 million. The startup, founded by Byju Raveendran in Nov’11, has already raised ~$200 million of equity and debt funding till now from a clutch of investors such as Sequoia Capital, Sofina, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, International Finance Corporation including others. It was one of the very few growth startups which raised money during the tumultuous time of 2016 when the investors pulled plug on easy investment and instead asked the startups to focus on optimizing cost and increasing revenues.

Byju Raveendran, Founder and CEO, said that “Our partnership with Verlinvest will further boost our aspiration to change the way students learn across the globe. In the last 18 months, we have witnessed exponential growth in India. While these numbers are very exciting, there is a long way to go before we can call it a revolution. The fact that we are still reaching to less than 1% of the student population, shows the immense potential and the impact we can create”.

The startup provides learning programs for class VI to XII students and preparation programs for competitive examinations such as JEE, CAT, IAS, GRE and GMAT, among others. It is planning to expand globally, especially in the US and UK, introduce new subjects beyond physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics. During FY16, it clocked revenue of INR110 crore and losses of INR50 crore.