India’s Byju’s buys Great Learning for $600 million

Bloomberg

India’s digital learning pioneer Byju’s is buying professional training and higher education platform Great Learning for $600 million, accelerating an acquisition spree to expand globally.
The cash-and-stock purchase marks an entry to the higher education segment for Byju’s, the company said on Monday in a statement. The sellers of Singapore-based Great Learning will receive certain payments based on its future performance, and Byju’s will set aside a further $400 million to boost the unit’s growth.
India’s most valuable startup plans to combine its technology with Great Learning’s professional courses in areas such as design and cloud computing. The coronavirus pandemic has boosted the popularity of online education as students and professionals seek to upgrade their skills, while schools and offices have shuttered.
“We are seizing an opportunity to create a very large edtech company for the world,” Byju Raveendran, the founder and chief executive officer of Byju’s, said on a video call. “India’s edtech startups have a huge competitive advantage to capture the global market.”
Byju’s, valued at $16.5 billion, is backed by Naspers, Tiger Global Management, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and others. It has 100 million registered students and 6.5 million paid subscribers on its eponymous learning app and a robust online-offline test prep presence through acquisition of Aakash Educational Services Ltd.