BYJU’S: The Super Unicorn in the EdTech World
By Sonali Munda,
About and the founder(s) of the Company:
BYJU’S is an Indian global edtech or educational technology company. It was founded by Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath in 2011. Its headquarters are in Bangalore, India. This tech giant is also a super unicorn that comes under the decacorn club of India. BYJU’S has a number of subsidiary companies like
TutorVista (Rebranded as iRobot Tutor TV STEM)
HashLearn
WhiteHat Jr
LabInApp
Scholr
Aakash Institute
Toppr
Whodat
Tynker
Epic!
Great Learning
Superset
GradeUp (Rebranded as Byju's Exam Prep)
GeoGebra
Founder’s(s’) Shares/Stake in the Company:
According to the reports, BYJU’S has currently raised a round of funding at a $22 billion valuation. The founder, Byju has invested $400 million in this round. So, with this round, Byju will be holding 25% of the company, and Divya Gokulnath, the cofounder will be holding a stake of 4%.
Investors and their Investments in the Company:
Before starting up with its first official investment Byju had an interesting backstory behind it. If we start from the very beginning Byju had only 3 students to teach. Gradually, it grew to 10 and then more making him realise his exceptionally interesting teaching skills. Students used to come to his coaching out of full interest. It was then, that he said, it is his dream to teach students filled up entirely in the Bangalore cricket stadium. But to make his dream come true he needed a huge amount of cash flow. But sadly, no venture capitalists or investors would invest in a startup where there is hardly any recognition or value of the startup in the market as the venture capitalists seek to earn maximum profits out of their investment in a renowned company. So he shifted from teaching students residing in India to teaching NRI students who would pay him the desired amount which he needed to set up his startup. And, this is how he got his very first funding for his business.
With it the company started in 2011 and the following is the list of investors with their amount of investments:
Current Market Valuation of the Company:
The current valuation of this decacorn stands to be $23 billion. BYJU’S has held the position of India's highest-valued startup since in September 2021 its valuation touched $17. In only nine months, the startup's valuation has grown from $21 billion to $23 billion, a growth of 35% from November 2021 to till date.
Competitors:
Canvas LMS GoReact ThinkUp!
Khan Academy McGraw-Hill Connect Graphy
NearPod Lumio by SMART Speexx
Vedamo Virtual Class
History of the Company and How did it Achieve the Unicorn Status:
The startup BYJU’S actually started off with the brand name of “Think and Learn Pvt. Ltd” company. It was established in 2011 by Byju Raveendran, Divya Gokulnath with a group of students. An engineer by profession who got an entrance in IIMB used to teach mathematics in couching in 2006. In the initial days of the startup, it used to focus on rendering video-based online learning programs to the k-12 segment and for competitive exams like CAT, MAT etc.
Then in August 15, the company got rebranded as BYJU’S with the tagline “The Learning App”. Further, it launched BYJU’S Math App for Kids and BYJU’S Parent Connect app in 2017. By 2018, it got a number of 15 million users and out of which 9 lakhs were paid users at that time. Also, in this year, BYJU’S attained the position of a unicorn company bagging the title of India’s first edtech unicorn. By next year, the company even got students from rural and non-metro cities.
SWOT Analysis of the Company:
Strengths-
BYJU’S has taken a first mover advantage in the edtech industry. It tapped the un-catered market of edtech.
BYJU’S has a variety of contents. It provides teaching content in theory, visual, and story formats that give the learners a broad range of products in it.
This edtech giant has a strong financial position according to the company’s balance sheet.
This company has huge customer retention as according to research a student spends a minimum of 40 mins on average once he/she opens Byju’s App.
Because of the good quality products and services, its customers are loyal to it.
Weaknesses:
Even after having a strong financial position overall, the return on investment is low due to the high expenses which the company has to incur.
The company also holds bad reviews for being too expensive.
This edtech wishes to grow internationally, but the number of enrollment from US children is declining.
Opportunities:
With the increase in the usage of the internet in India, the trend of education technology has also increased over the last few years. Everyone wants the comfort of being anywhere for studying.
The education sector has been adversely affected due to Covid-19. Physical classrooms were closed for a long time. It has given a great opportunity to Byju’s to increase its market as more and more learners are dependent on online education.
Now, even the Govt. is completely supporting The New Education Policy that has laid great emphasis on online education.
The fan following of BYJU’S gives the company a great opportunity to introduce classes for technical and professional courses.
Threats-
The edtech’s business model is quite replicable by the new entrants.
This being an era of online education, more and more companies are arriving into this sector.
After the pandemic this is the time of economic recession. People are willing to spend less even on essential products. So, they might not afford online classes for their children along with the school going on.
Future of the Company:
BYJU’S is currently looking forward to establishing itself internationally.
The report of Verdict says “Indian online educational services company Byju’s is focused on global expansion and has aggressive plans for the US market. It first expanded internationally by launching a live online one-on-one learning platform, Byju’s Future School, in May 2021.”
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