Byju’s is in advanced talks to merge with Churchill Capital’s special-purpose acquisition companies (SPAC) to go public.
Byju’s, which provides online education for a wide range of age groups, has benefited from the boom in online education caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Economic Times report, an advanced stage of talks about the deal with Churchill Capital’s special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) is underway with plans to raise around $4 billion.
Byju’s is also considering dual listings, and in the event the deal fails, it may look to list in India next year. Byju’s was contemplating going public through a SPAC.
In 2021, several Indian startups have entered the “unicorn” club of $1 billion valuations. The digital payments company Paytm, food delivery service Zomato, and fashion e-commerce company Nykaa made their market debuts with massive IPOs.
SPACs, or special purpose acquisition companies, are publicly listed investment vehicles with no operating operations and are raised to merge with a private company. Leading Indian startups such as Swiggy and Byju’s wrote to the country’s Prime Minister earlier this year, urging him to develop a policy allowing Indian firms to list directly on foreign exchanges.
Byju’s, which offers learning programs for competitive exams like the Indian Administrative Services, has 50 million subscribers and 3.5 million registered students, according to its website.
