Byju’s buys Great Learning for $600 Million to expand its EdTech Services

India's leading digital learning platform Byju's has brought professional training and higher education platform Great Learning for $600 million to accelerate an acquisition spree to expand its EdTech offerings globally. This cash-and-stock purchase marks an entry to the higher education segment for Byju's. The company stated that the Singapore-based Great Learning would receive certain payments based on its future performance, and Byju's will add $400 million more to boost the unit's growth.

India's most valuable startup aims to combine its technology with Great Learning's professional courses in design and cloud computing. The pandemic has boosted online education popularity as students and professionals are now seeking to upgrade their skills while schools and offices have shuttered. With this, Byju's is seizing an opportunity to create a very large EdTech company for the world.

To date, Byju's had 100 million registered students and 6.5 million paid subscribers on its eponymous learning app. The company's courses solve real-world problems through a practical approach, in contrast to traditional learning in universities. Great Learning works with universities in India, including Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

Byju’s Eyes US Expansion with $500 million Epic Acquisition

Indian edtech startup Byju’s has announced the acquisition of the US-based reading platform Epic. The latter is a popular digital reading platform for kids under-12. The cost the acquisition is $500 million. This acquisition is being seen as a move by Byju’s to expand in the US.

This move by Byju’s is part of its plans of developing in North America where it plans to invest $1 billion. Acquisition of Epic is a good move by Byju’s. Epic’s global user base has 2 million teachers and 50 million kids. The reading platform is designed incredibly. It allows kids to personalize reading themselves.

Epic has so far raised $51 million in funding to date and has 150 employees on its payroll. The company’s CEO Suren Markosian and co-founder Kevin Donahue will remain in their roles at Epic post the acquisition.

Prior to this acquisition, Byju’s has made some other big investments recently, including a $300 million acquisition of White Hat Jr and Aakash Educational Services for almost a billion dollars. The Epic acquisition will further expand its products portfolio and bring fresh expertise onboard to expand in North America.