Being the world’s most valued edutech startup, Byju’s funding rounds always have a long gestation period and therefore it may not come as a major surprise that Byju’s is still not done with its ongoing series F round. This after it raised approximately $122 Mn from DST Global in the ongoing series F round – the series F round started in the beginning of 2019. In the current exchange rate, DST’s $122 Mn comes to approximately INR 908 crores.
Regulatory filing reveals that Byju’s has allotted total 42,666 preference shares at an issue price of Rs 213, 042.13 to DST Global. Following this round, Byju Raveendran and his family’s stake in the company hovers around 33.1%.
There is also the possibility of secondary transactions taking place through this round, leading to partial exit or complete exit of some existing investors. However, we’ll have to dig regulatory filings to ascertain the same.
As for upcoming funding, close sources have revealed to the Economic Times that Byju’s is likely to raise more $400 Mn in the ongoing series F round. Techpluto’s query to the company on this matter went unanswered at the time of filing this story.
Byju’s recent fundraising spree is possibly meant for its rapid international expansion plans. These plans got a sudden boost after the Edutech major acquired Whitehat Jr for $300 Mn earlier this month. Notably, WhiteHat Jr’s founder and CEO karan Bajaj had specifically said post acquisition that Byju’s and WhiteHat were on the same page as far as their international ambitions were concerned. In other words, Byju’s want to bank on its latest acquisition for building a global online edutech empire. This lofty ambition may get much needed help from the fact that American market alone constitutes nearly 50% of WhiteHat’s impressive annual revenue rate of $150 Mn, this has been claimed by Bajaj himself in an interview.
However, Byju’s is not merely eyeing the U.S market alone with the help of its latest acquisition since WhiteHat has already entered in several non-American markets. WhiteHat has already gone live in Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand and will expand further to more markets in the coming months. Techpluto has learnt that WhiteHat is all set to launch courses in Brazil, japan and Indonesia in local dialects by November. Techpluto reached out to WhiteHat to confirm this news but our queries went unanswered. However, reports claim that WhiteHat’s foray in Brazil, Japan and Indonesia is all but certain by end of the coming year.
WhiteHat has also gone for aggressive hiring for growing its business in the foreign markets. The company has put requirements for sales representatives for growing its business in New Zealand and Australian markets. We came across WhiteHat’s hiring requirements on LinkedIn and job portal Instahyre.com.
Considering WhiteHat’s aggressive international expansion, Byju’s may pump some capital in the company in the coming months. It must be noted that WhiteHat was already out in the market for raising fresh funds weeks before it got acquired by Byju’s.