Photo credit: Pixabay.
Indian edtech startup Byju’s announced a series D round of US$50 million today. The round was led by existing investor Sequoia Capital and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which is a personal fund created by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan. This is their first investment into Asia.
Other investors included Sofina, Lightspeed Ventures, and Times Internet. The money will be used for international expansion, including the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as more support for its existing presence in the Middle East. It also plans to use the money to ramp up its current offerings by introducing new subjects and to “inspire additional funding investments.”
Vivian Wu, head of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s education venture, will join Byju’s board.“The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative supports innovative models of learning wherever they are around the world,” she said in a statement. “Education can give young people and their families a path to a better future, and families in India work hard to give their children that chance.”
After it launched last year, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative made its first investment when it participated in a US$24 million series B round into Andela, a startup that trains engineers around Africa.
Byju’s creates learning programs for K-12 students as well as for competitive exams, like the GMAT and the JEE. Before this, it raised US$75 million in a series C round from Sequoia Capital and Sofina. It’s also raised roughly US$5 million in venture debt from InnoVen Capital. The money was spread across two tranches, between September 2015 and March 2016. It closed a US$9 million series A round in 2011 from Aarin Capital.
Byju’s launched in 2015 and claims to be profitable in India with a monthly growth of 15 percent. Students spend an average of 40 minutes a day on the app. It also claims more than 5.5 million downloads with 250,000 paid yearly subscribers.
This post India’s most funded edtech startup gets money from Sequoia and Zuckerberg’s personal fund appeared first on Tech in Asia.
from Tech in Asia https://www.techinasia.com/byjus-series-d
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