Venkatesh Iyer
Banglore: BYJUs has acquired less than 2, year young company WhiteHat Jr. a Mumbai-based education technology start-up in an all-cash undisclosed deal estimated to be around $300 million. This acquisition signals BYJUs entry into the fast-growing computer code training segment targeted at the high school and college students.
The deal has proved to be a wise investment decision to WhiteHat’s investors- venture firms Nexus Venture Partners, Owl Ventures and Omidyar Network as it has given them an option of an early exit. These firms had invested $11 million. The Founder and CEO of WhiteHat Jr. Karan Bajaj will continue to lead this organisation and scale the business in India and in the United States of America.
WhiteHat Jr. had declared their plans to expand to other global markets like Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK. They already have a sizeable presence in the US market since its launch in February 2020 where it claims over 100 per cent month-on-month growth since the launch
The coding platform company has been aiding kids between the age of 6 to 14 years to build commercial-ready games, animations, and apps online by means of understanding fundamentals of coding and offers four levels of courses including beginner, intermediate, advanced, and professional. It also equips students with computer coding skills for classes 9-12.
The subscription packages range between Rs 6,000 to Rs 1 lakh, depending on the number of classes opted by the students. It currently offers three packages of 8, 48 and 144 classes, respectively. This acquisition is 5th in its line of buying companies and also the largest acquisition to date.
The names of the company acquired have been listed in reverse chronology.
2019 – Californian based Osmo, a maker of educational games, for $120 million in its first-. 2018 – Maths Adventures a maths learning set-up
2017- Edurite a self-paced learning company and TutorVista Global P. Ltd an online test prep for homework.
This also keeps BYJU’s in the news as it either is getting funded from investors catapulting them to the Decacorn club or they are in an acquisition spree. The company is also in the advanced stage to take over doubt clearing platform Doubtnut
The education technology sector has benefitted immensely from the lockdown. BYJUs saw more than 15 million new students learning on its platform amid the temporary shutdown of schools.
At this point when the whole world is wilting under the COVID-19 pandemic, nationwide lockdowns and social distancing are hampering businesses, education startups are growing in India and are reporting skyrocketing growth at the peak of a worldwide pandemic. These startups are helping the student fraternity to bridge the gap and are taking education to the subsequent level across India. The usage of digital education has increased and this sector and firms are anticipating possessing an improved top-line this fiscal year.
