Byju’s, an International educational technology company with its headquarters in Bangalore was founded by Byju Raveendran and his wife Divya Gokulnath in 2011. Initially, the firm was set up to educate children of the K-12 segment (kindergarten to 12th grade) and take classes for competitive exams. But later in 2015, they launched Byju’s: The Learning App developed by Think and Learn Pvt. Ltd. The app has reached millions of people and is touching the sky beyond expectations.
According to the sources in the recent past, the company has acquired many education-related apps and firms and they have expanded the business to the professional and higher education sector.
In July 2017 they acquired Tutor Vista, including Edurite from Pearson, an online teaching platform in the US with its operations based in India. Through this acquisition, they expanded their services to English-speaking markets.
In January 2019, they acquired US-based Osmo for $120 million, developing educational games for kids between the ages of 3-8 years.
In 2020, they acquired WhiteHat Jr. for $300 million in August and LabInApp in September.
In 2021 they made major acquisitions including Scholar, Aakash Educational Services Ltd., Epic, Great Learning, and Toppr.
Now the company eyes on Vedantu, an Indian Online tutoring platform established in 2014 by Vamshi Krishna, Pulkit Jain Saurabh Saxena, and Anand Prakash. Their main aim is ICSE and CBSE classes and their primary business is one-to-one live classes for students and also provides test preparation courses for competitive exams. They also offer classes to K-12segment kids.
The sources say that Byju’s has offered around $600 – $700 million to Vedantu. The discussions are moving towards the advanced level and the companies are waiting for the regulatory approvals for further actions.
If this acquisition takes place, it will be Byju’s fourth major acquisition by Byju’s this year. First being Aakash educational services ltd., Epic, Great learning, and now Vedantu.
Vedantu while talking to the media states that all the statements are false and any kind of such offers have not been accepted by them and even remotely they are not considering anything of such sort. The founders are led by the same mission: to create a company that continues to create an impact in every student’s life. Their aim is to create one of the world’s largest Impactful companies, one that lasts for life. This gives them a sense of purpose, which is much beyond anything they wanted. The company is not just their dream but a very precious part of their lives to be sold or given away, says one of the founder members of Vedantu. Byju’s on the other hand have not said anything related to such news.
