Byju’s, an ed-tech decacorn, has acquired the higher education platform Great Learning and after-school learning app Toppr, spending $600 million and $150 million, respectively. The development came less than a week after it acquired Epic, a US-based online reading platform, for $500 million.
With the latest acquisition of Great Learning, Byju’s enters the professional upskilling and reskilling segment globally with a total commitment of $1 billion. The ed-tech decacorn has further embarked on a $400 million investment to accelerate the growth of Great Learning.
Byju’s, India’s most valuable start-up, seems to be on an acquisition mode to grow rapidly in India and worldwide as the Covid-19 pandemic has stimulated the adoption of online education. The one after another acquirement indicates that Byju’s is also taking the lead over its competitors like SoftBank’s Unacademy, Vedantu, UpGrad, Amazon Academy, etc.
The Bengaluru-based firm, in April, acquired Aakash Educational Services Ltd for $1 billion.
With these new developments by Byju’s, it has six companies acquired in India and the US in 2021 alone and spent more than $2 billion over the last six months.
The partnership between Byju’s and Great Learning is expected to combine Byju’s technology and content expertise with Great Learning’s sought-after professional courses and boost Great Learning’s organic and inorganic growth in Indian and global markets. This investment will also expand Great Learning’s transformational offerings to learners anywhere in the world.
The collaboration, however, allows Great Learning to continue its operation as an independent unit under the leadership of its founder and CEO and co-founders.
Great Learning offers higher learning degree, diploma and certificate courses across several domains like artificial intelligence and machine learning, data science, digital marketing, in collaboration with recognised universities worldwide.
Founded in 2013, Great Learning’s courses aim to solve real-world problems through a practical approach, collaborating with Indian and foreign universities like Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), etc.
Buju’s Acquisitions
2017
TutorVista and Edurite from UK-based Pearson in July
Vidyartha in January
2018
Math Adventures in July
2019
Osmo, a US-based educational games system, for $120 million
2020
LabInApp in September
WhiteHat Jr for $300 million
2021
Great Learning for $600 million in July
Epic, a US-based digital reading platform for children, for $500 million in July
Aakash Education Services for $1 billion in April
HashLearn in May
Scholar in February
