It would be difficult for any Indian startup to match with Byju’s fundraising spree this year, which has seen enormous funds coming from several international investors. Investors certainly see enormously bright prospect for the edutech industry in the post pandemic era, more so for Byju’s as it is the world’s most valued edutech startup.
Keeping in line with this buoyant mood, Silver Lake decided to join the edutech party anchored by Byju’s after it brought in a fat cheque to pour fresh funding in the Bengaluru based company. Silver Lake is actually a new investor in the company. According to the regulatory filings, Silver Lake has invested $150 Mn or nearly Rs 1,000 crore and picked up 52,632 convertible preference shares at Rs 213,032 premium per security.
Existing investor Tiger Global, on other hand, has invested nearly Rs 326 crore and picked up 15,263 preference shares at premium rate of Rs 213,032 per security.
As per our calculation, Silver Lake now owns nearly 1.40% stake while existing investor Tiger Global’s stake following the latest round has increased to almost 3% in the company.
Silver Lake and Tiger Global have collectively chipped in nearly $200 Mn in the latest round that has been touted around $500 Mn. The remaining deficit of around $300 Mn is expected to be get filled in the coming months with international investors likely to pour more money in the company.
We could not ascertain if there has been any secondary competent to series of recent funding rounds raised by Byju’s. Byju Raveendran recently said in an interview to Mint that all its existing investors are thinking long term and want to hold down to their stakes. This revelation strongly hinted that company is thinking about bringing IPO in the near future, which should possibly give big profitable exits for many of its investors.
In another important development, Byju’s has infused Rs 136 crores in its subsidiary company WhiteHat Jr as the latter aims to expand its outreach in the international market. This is the first capital infusion done by Edutech major after acquiring Whitehat Jr for nearly $300 Mn few months back. Techpluto has learnt from various sources that Whitehat Jr is all set to enter Brazil, japan and Indonesia in coming months. More importantly, it is reportedly going to launch courses in these markets in native launches. The company has already gone live live in Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand barely few weeks back.
WhiteHat Jr’s ROC filings have also disclosed that Karan Bajaj’s wife Kerry Bajaj has resigned from company’s board of directors team. WhiteHat Jr has now three full-time and executive directors Byju Raveendran, Riju Ravindran and Karan Bajaj