BYJU'S to close USD 400 million funding round

Online education start-up BYJU'S will close a USD 400 million (about Rs 2,879 crore) funding round led by South African media giant Naspers in the next few weeks, according to sources.

About USD 300 million of the amount has already come in, with the remaining expected to be closed in the next few weeks, sources close to the development said.

The new round of funding is expected to value the company -- which is backed by high-profile investors like Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), IFC (a World Bank Group member) and Tencent Holdings -- at about USD 3.6 billion (around Rs 25,800 crore), they added.

Private equity major General Atlantic is also participating in this round, one of the sources said.

When contacted, a BYJU'S spokesperson declined to comment.

In June this year, BYJU'S had said it has crossed Rs 100 crore in monthly revenue and had revised its revenue targets for this year to Rs 1,400 crore.

"Growing consistently at 100 per cent annually for the last three years, BYJU'S is one of the few Indian unicorns that has become profitable within a very short period of time, since the launch of its learning app in 2015," it had said.

The application has over 20 million registered students and 1.26 million annual paid subscribers.