PE Fund Investments
Edtech unicorn Byju's raises $700-M: report
Bengaluru-headquartered edtech major Byju's has raised USD 700 million at a valuation of USD 22 Billion, involving two separate deals of equity and convertible notes. The funding round was led by two West Asia-based sovereign wealth funds and large private equity firms. A few existing investors also participated in the funding round. The fresh funding round comes at a time when the company has been working around repayments of a large USD 1.2 Billion term loan with a five-year tenure that it secured in November 2021. In December last year, a group of lenders that participated in the term loan offering renegotiated the terms of the debt, including faster repayment. Byju's has raised more than USD 5 Billion to date. Its last significant fundraise was a USD 250 million funding round from Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) at a valuation of USD 22 billion in November 2022. Earlier, in March 2022, it had raised USD 800 million from Sumeru Ventures, Vitruvian Partners and BlackRock. Byju's has recently been in the news for multiple rounds of layoffs and for questionable accounting practices that received scrutiny from its own financial auditor. Byju's also came under scrutiny from the government and the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) after its FY21 financials were delayed by almost 18 months beyond the prescribed timeline. The company reported a net loss of INR 4,588 crore for FY21, up from INR 231.69 crore in FY20.
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