Byju’s, one of India’s most valuable start-ups is in talks to raise around $400 million to $600 million through an initial public offering (IPO). The latest on the matter indicated that the company has in fact accelerated its plans for the IPO and will likely make its debut sometime next year, according to a report by Bloomberg. The education start-up could potentially close its pre-IPO fundraising sometime in the next few weeks, which would bring the valuation to about $21 billion, the report mentioned. As the matter is still not public knowledge, the sources that informed Bloomberg asked not to be named. It was suggested that the fundraising would likely split a rough-even between equity and debt.
Byju’s, which is headed by former teacher Byju Raveendran, is looking to file its IPO documents as early as the next year, in the second quarter. This will come after the close of its current financial year in March, reported Bloomberg. The company was initially planning for a timeframe of 12 to 24 months. It should also be noted that the company and its bankers are in talks for a valuation of around $40 billion to $50 billion, though the final number will only see the light when the financial results and investor demand is realised, said the report.
The banks that are involved in the IPO discussions are Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., sources told Bloomberg. It was also touted that the investment bankers had pitched alternative moves such as filing for an IPO in the US and even a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). However, these venues were less likely to come to fruition according to reports.
Who is Byju Raveendran?
Hailing from a small locality known as Azhikode village in the Kannur district of Kerala, Raveendran is a teacher turned entrepreneur-cum-billionaire. The seeds to his future venture were planted when he was just a young graduate. He had started teaching Maths to his friends and would often help students prepare for entrance exams such as the common entrance exam (CAT). In 2003, he had attemped the CAT for himself and scored a perfect 100 per cent. It was from here that he decided to take up a full-time teaching position.
In the initial days he had set up a platform known as ‘Think and Learn’ in 2011. In 2013 he had managed to raise around $9 million in a Series A round of funding from Aarin Capital. This paved the way for him to launch Byju’s just a few years later in 2015. In 2018 the entrepreneur won the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award under the Start-up category. Within just three months of having founded the education platform, it grew to a membership base of around 20 lakh students.
He began the start-up on a freemium model that trained students for some of the country’s most competitive exams. This included the likes of exams such as IIT-JEE, NEET, CAT and even IAS exams. He also included some international exams such as GRE and GMAT.
Over the course of just a few years, the company has grown tremendously and is often dubbed as ‘India’s most valuable start-up’. As of April 2021, the company had a valuation of around $16.5 billion. It has over 15 million students on its platform and over 900,000 paid subscribers. In a span of around six years, what this entrepreneur has achieved through education and shared learning has proven to be beyond just simple success, one could say that it was a pioneering initiative.
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