The funding round values the edtech company at roughly $22 billion post-money, individuals aware of the discussion told ET. Other investors in the round included Sumeru Ventures, Vitruvian Partners and BlackRock.
With the investment, Raveendran’s stake in the edtech company has grown from roughly 20-22% to 25%, making him one of the largest shareholders on the company’s captable. Byju’s founders, management and employees now own roughly 29% in the company.
The firm will now look to file papers for its initial public offering and list on the public markets in the next 9-12 months. Byju’s is exploring the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) route in the US and is expecting a valuation of about $40 billion, people aware of the discussion said.
A SPAC, also known as a “blank check company”, is a shell corporation listed on a stock exchange with the purpose of acquiring a private company, thus making it public without going through the traditional initial public offering process.
Byju’s is also assessing a listing on the Indian bourses as a backup plan as market conditions continue to hammer global tech stocks. It is in talks to hire Goldman Sachs as one of the lead book managers for its IPO, the people cited above said.
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The company had raised about $300 million in October at a valuation of $18 billion. Investors in that round included Oxshott Capital Partners, XN Exponent, Edelweiss, Verition Master Fund, IIFL and Time Capital Advisors.
Byju’s has raised over $2 billion since the start of the pandemic and has used most of the funds to acquire other edtech companies. Last April, it bought offline coaching institute Aakash for close to $1 billion. In December, it acquired Austria’s math platform GeoGebra. Byju’s has also acquired Great Learning and US-based Epic to diversify its offerings in the growing edtech space.
