Indian education company Byju’s announced on Friday that General Atlantic, a current investor in the startup, has pumped extra money to join its latest, ongoing investment round.

More About The Investment

While the Bangalore-situated startup, which assists students in learning theories from math and science applying short videos, did not reveal the extent of General Atlantic’s check, a reference close with the matter informed that the New York-headquartered investment firm had funded $200 million in the latest round at a valuation of $8 billion.

The news now comes weeks after Tiger Global funded $200 million in the nine-year-old startup, which maintained profitability before the new financing round.

The current round, which has backed Byju’s valuation rise from about $5.7 billion a year ago to $8 billion, has given the edtech startup the third most important private firm in India after financial services firm Paytm (estimated at $16 billion) and budget-hotel operator Oyo (estimated at $10 billion).

Meet The Face Behind The Company

Byju Raveendran, the originator and chief executive of the eponymous startup, told that the new venture illustrates “an ever-increasing recognition of our education programs in small towns across the nation.”

Raveendran, a previous teacher, established Byju’s in 2011— a period when only a few million people in India had a smartphone, and mobile data prices were too expensive for most.

Thanks to the increase of low-cost Android phones in India and decreasing data prices since thousands of millions of people in the nation have come online in the previous decade.

Byju’s further applied innovative ways such as utilising a pizza to help explain complicated scientific concepts.

Its app has accumulated over 42 million enrolled users, 3 million of whom are paid, subscribers.

Byjus - the learning app | iTMunch

The startup gives programs that are directed at students in grade six and upwards — including those planning for competitive undergraduate classes.

More than 65 per cent of Byju’s pupils are from outside the top 10 cities in the country, giving much access to quality education for the initial time.

Byju’s has allocated around $1.45 billion to date.

It additionally includes Tencent and Naspers amongst its investors.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative was too an initial investor.

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