India has the biggest K-12 educational market in the world, with 260 million students enrolled. Quality learning is essential to prepare students to succeed in their job tomorrow. Globally, enrollment gaps between high and low-income countries have been narrowed drastically in basic and secondary education.
India is not immune to this crisis. Good-quality teachers are expensive and tend to be concentrated in large cities where there are more opportunities. Learning happens because of fear of examinations, and not for the love for learning. Students memorize and forget after examinations. The current need is for a product that brings childlike curiosity back in students and makes them look forward to learning something new every day.
The idea behind starting BYJU’S was to make learning accessible, effective, engaging, and custom-made for everyone. BYJU’S is a technology platform of Think and Learn Private, Ltd., the largest for-profit provider of digital education content in India. It is a Bangalore-based educational technology platform created by Byju Raveendran in the year 2011.
BYJU’s – The learning app was launched in the year 2015. BYJU’s aim is to create a complete learning experience that integrates classes from the best of the teachers, assessments, and assignments which are personalized for every student, along with in-depth analysis and recommendations.
Byju’s Vision and Mission Statements
“Our aim is to become one of the most preferred education technology platforms across the globe. We believe in the power of one-to-one learning that addresses every child’s learning needs, allows students to be holistically involved in their education and be active, lifelong learners.”
Founders and Management Team:
Byju Raveendran, founder and CEO was born in Azhikode Village, Kannur district, Kerala. After graduating with an engineering degree, he secured a job as a Service Engineer at a multi-national shipping firm. Byju’s friends were preparing for the Common Admissions Test (CAT), the entrance exams for the elite Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), and they asked Byju for help with preparation. They convinced him to take the exam and he scored in the 100th percentile. In 2006, Byju started offering more formal CAT preparation. Byju Raveendran is also an expert sportsperson, active in six different sports such as football, cricket, table tennis, and badminton at the university level.
Divya Gokulnath, Wife of Byju Raveendran and Co-founder and Director at BYJU’s. She completed her B.Tech in Biotechnology from R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore.
BYJU’s Logo and Tagline
BYJU’s has exactly targeted the perfect audience-students and has provided them the support for better clarity on the topics which will be helpful to them clear the entrance examinations in a simpler and stimulating way by a single click of the mouse along with a travel-free experience and has given them the freedom to learn at their own pace. The Tagline is “Fall in love with learning”.
Byju’s Funding and Investors:
BYJU’s has raised a total of $7 Billion in funding over 23 rounds.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
| Mar 2016 | Sequoia Capital India, Sofina Ventures | $75 Million | Series C |
| Sep 2016 | Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Sequoia Capital India | $50 Million | Series D |
| Dec 2016 | IFC Venture Capital Group & InnoVen Capital | $15 Million | Series E |
| Mar 2017 | Vrelinvest | $30 Million | Series F |
| Aug 2017 | Tencent Holdings | $40 Million | Corporate round |
| Dec 11, 2018 | Prosus and Naspers | $540 Million | Venture Round |
| Mar 22, 2019 | General Atlantic, Tencent Holdings | $31Million | Private Equity Round |
| July 10 2019 | Qatar Investment Authority | $150 Million | Venture Round |
| Jan 9, 2020 | Tiger Global Management | $200 Million | Private Equity |
| Jun 26, 2020 | Bond | $100 Million | Venture Round |
| Aug 26, 2020 | DST Global | $122 Million | Venture Capital |
| Sep 8, 2020 | Silver Lake | $500 Million | Private Equity Round |
| Mar 29, 2021 | MC Global EDtech Investment Holdings | $460 Million | Series F |
| Jun 12, 2021 | UBS Group, Eric Yuan, Blackstone | $460 Million | Series F |
| Jun 21, 2021 | IIFL and Maitri Edtech | $50 Million | Series F |
| Sep 8, 2021 | Asmaan Ventures, Mirae Asset, ARK Ncore | $150 Million | |
| Oct 4, 2021 | Oxshott Capital Ventures | $286.61 Miilion | Series F |
| Nov 8,2021 | $1.2 Billion | Debt Financing | |
| Mar 11, 2022 | Byju Raveendran, Sumera Ventures, Vitruvian Partners, BlackRock | $800 Million | |
| Total Funding | $7 Billion |
In the year 2016, BYJU’s became the first establishment in Asia to receive funding from the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, an initiative by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan.
Byju’s Products and Services
The business model of BYJU’s is a freemium business model where communication is done from Business-to-Consumer (B2C). It provides free access to content limited to 15 days after registration. Once the trial period ends, an amount of Rs.10,000/- is required to be paid for the subscription which allows access to the complete learning program with videos and adaptive learning modules. BYJU’s has an 89% subscription renewal rate.
When a student chooses BYJU’s for learning, one gets a personalized experience using their ‘Knowledge Graph’ feature and can proceed at their own pace. Also, the platform also provides a free counselling session at the doorstep so that the student can understand and select the course of one’s interest more confidently. The features of BYJU’s classes cost include:
- Video content
- Appraisal
- Real-time Communication
- Analysis
- Mobile Access
- Learning Manager
- Broad Compliance
- Out-of-the-box techniques
- Library management
- Visual aid
- Personalized environment
- Easy access
The app is compatible with both Android and Apple devices. For Android phones, the app requires Android 5.0 or newer and the size of the app is 88 MB. For iOS users, the app requires iOS 11.0 or newer and the size of the app is 367.3 MB. The app covers the academic needs of classes 4 to 12 (Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology, and Physics).
The features vary for each grade, subject, and type of course or board. It has video class content from leading teachers and trainers across the nation. Beyond classes, students can also use assessment tools and get their doubts cleared by the faculty members. The analysis tools allow the students to compare their progress over time. About half a million users have rated the app and 92 per cent have rated it 4 or 5 stars. Among apps with over 10 million downloads, it is considered the “Best Rated” app in the country and across categories.
Byju’s Market Analysis and Strategy
Since 2015, since the launch of the app 900,000 students have purchased annual subscriptions. Some key highlights of the Marketing Strategy are:
- In the early stages, BYJU’s classes spread like wildfire through word of mouth. But to reach millions of students nationwide it needed a different approach to rapidly create brand awareness and scale up. In 2017, BYJU’s launched a series of nationwide TV campaigns that featured famous Bollywood Star SHAHRUKH KHAN. The TV campaign allowed it to reach very small towns where there was less access to digital platforms.
- Converting a free app download into a revenue-generating sales requires a sophisticated approach as the product offered has a high up-front cost. BYJU’s monitors student engagement on the platform and the sales representative will analyze such data and inform the parents about the child’s performance. Thus far, parents of 6th to 12th graders have converted for 3.3 years, or every new academic year since the product was launched. It anticipates that the average product renewal will continue to increase as it adds content for more grades.
- Without a direct marketing effort, it expanded to Middle Eastern countries where there is a large Indian population. About 4 million students in the Middle East follow the Indian curriculum and Indian TV programming can be seen in certain parts of the region. Parents and children were seeing BYJU’S TV commercials or had heard about it from friends and family living in India and were downloading the app. While BYJU’S was not actively marketing in this region, it gained collateral benefits.
Financial Plan of Byju’s:
BYJU’s has established itself as the highest-valued startup in India, worth around $16.5 Billion after rising more than $1.5 Billion during the first half of 2021.
BYJU’s Revenue Breakdown:
| Sales | FY20 | FY19 |
| Sale of Tablets and SD Cards | Rs.1,675.7 Cr | Rs.722.22 Cr |
| Sale of Reference Books | Rs.560.6 Cr | Rs.458.8 Cr |
| Tuition and Service fee | Rs.144.7 Cr | Rs.125 Cr |
BYJU’s Expenses Breakdown:
| Expenses | FY20 | FY19 |
| Employee benefit expenses | Rs.420.3 Cr | Rs.273.7 Cr |
| Expenses on Streaming Content and Study Material | Rs.458 Cr | Rs.252.6 Cr |
| Advertising Promotional expenses | Rs.1,175.6 Cr | Rs.457.6 Cr |
| Depreciation | Rs.232 Cr | Rs.68.5 Cr |
| Finance cost | Rs.162.1 Cr | Rs.106.5 Cr |
| Other Admin and Operation cost | Rs.574 Cr | Rs.574 Cr |
BYJU’s Financials:
| FY20 | FY19 | |
| Revenues | Rs.2,381 Cr | Rs.1,306 Cr |
| Expenses | Rs.3,022 Cr | Rs.1,376.5 Cr |
| EBITDA Margin | 2.80% | 12.10% |
| Profit / Loss | Loss of Rs.262.1 Cr | Loss of Rs.8.82 Cr |
In August 2017, it entered an elite group, becoming a unicorn company—a startup that has grown to a value of over $1 billion. It is the 11th technology start-up to cross that threshold in India.
Byju’s Partnership and Acquisitions:
Partnerships:
BYJU’s has partnered with NITI Aayog to provide free access to its tech-driven learning programs for children from 112 “aspirational districts” of the country. The so-called districts are in the country’s most developmentally challenged regions across sectors such as health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, infrastructure, financial inclusion, and skill development. With effective use of technology in education and with BYJU’s joining in, the students in these districts will gain the opportunity to access quality education.
The American India Foundation (AIF) and BYJU’s partnership aims to reach 1 million students through 10,000 schools, making it the most audacious of AIF’s efforts to scale access to quality education and deliver impact to children from migrant communities and weak populations. COVID-19 pandemic school closures have affected around 320 million students resulting in learning deficits and drop-out rates. It needs to adapt to e-learning in a holistic ecosystem methodology and AIF’s partnership with BYJU’s fills this gap with the exciting potential to enable transformative learning practices for students from low-income families and rural migrant communities.
BYJU’s strongly believes that sports provide an unstructured environment that helps in developing real-life skills. Since September 2019, BYJU’s is the official partner for the Indian Cricket Team and has its logo on the Indian Team Jersey. By partnering with Cricket, BYJU’S wants to inspire children to fall in love with learning and urge every parent to allow their children to become self-learners for life.
BYJU’s has announced a partnership with FIFA World Cup 2022 to be held in Qatar later this year. BYJU’s will leverage its rights to the FIFA World Cup 2022 emblem and assets and run advertisements to connect with football fans around the world.
BYJU’s Acquisitions:
| Acquisition Date | Company Name | Price | Founded year | Details |
| May 01, 2010 | Specadel | 2010 | Mobile App developer for study content and assessment tools | |
| Jun 01, 2015 | Infinite Student | 2012 | A platform for online courses | |
| Jan 17, 2017 | Vidyartha | $7.3 Million | 2012 | Activity-based career guidance for schools and individuals |
| Jul 03, 2017 | Edurite | 2000 | Online courses and educational CD’s for K-12 courses | |
| Jul 03, 2017 | TutorVista | 2005 | Online tutoring services for school and college students | |
| Jul 24, 2018 | Math Adventures | 2012 | Activity-based math learning programs for K-12 | |
| Jan 29, 2019 | Osmo | $120 Million | 2013 | Developer of hardware-based iPad for kids |
| Aug 05, 2020 | WhiteHat Jr. | $300 Million | 2018 | Online Coding tutoring for Kids |
| Sep 17, 2020 | LabInApp | 2014 | 3D Virtual lab platform | |
| Jan 12, 2021 | Aakash Educational Services | $1 Billion | 1988 | Medical and Engineering entrance exams coaching |
| Feb 18, 2021 | Scholr | $180 Million | 2015 | Homework assistance |
| May 29, 2021 | HashLearn | 2013 | Online learning and collaboration | |
| Jul 13, 2021 | Gradeup | 2015 | Test preparation material | |
| Jul 21, 2021 | Epic | $500 Million | 2013 | eBooks for kids |
| Jul 25, 2021 | Toppr | $150 Million | 2013 | E-Learning and Test prep |
| Jul 25, 2021 | Great Learning | $600 Million | 2013 | Professional Skilling |
| Aug 04, 2021 | Whodat | 2013 | Augmented Reality | |
| Sep 13, 2021 | Tynker | $200 Million | Coding for students | |
| Dec 08, 2021 | GeoGebra | $100 Million | 2002 | Interactive Mathematics Application |
Competitions of the ed-tech giant BYJU’s
With the rise of the Internet and technology, students have the freedom and flexibility to study at their convenience. BYJU’s has the highest market share in the Indian EdTech business. However, this means there is tough competition in the market. Some of the competitors are listed below:
- Vedantu: Started in 2011, it is a Bangalore-based startup that provides education for students from classes 4th to 12th. Vedantu uses Whiteboard Audio-video Technique to provide 1-1 Teacher Student Sessions. They also offer Education for IIT Entrance JEE Examination.
- Khan Academy: Founded in 2006, it is an American non-profit online education organization. It is mostly funded by donations and essentially provides free educational videos that are hosted on YouTube.
- Simplilearn: Founded in 2010, the company provides education related to Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity, cloud computing, digital marketing, Deep Learning, and data science. They have trained more than 2+ Million Professionals in 150+ Countries.
- Unacademy: Founded in 2015, it is a Bangalore based startup that provides preparation material for several professional examinations in India.
- Udemy: Started in 2010, it is an American learning platform that has more than 1,55,000 courses with more than 40 million subscribers. Udemy offers courses in various subjects which Includes Computers, Academics, Art, language, Fitness, Internet, Music, and more. Depending upon the Educator, the Courses on Udemy can be Free or Paid.
- Meritnation: Founded in 2008, is an online learning portal for school children of classes 1st to 12th across leading educational boards. It has a team of experienced educationists and technologists who are passionate about changing the status quo and challenging one another continuously to provide products that empower student knowledge.
- Skill Share: Founded in 2010, is a platform offering courses in different categories like entrepreneurship, design, and technology and more. In 2018, the company launched its collection of courses called SkillShare Originals. All of this Unique Content was produced and created by Skillshop in-house professionals’ team.
- Coursera: Launched in 2012, is an American learning platform offering online courses, degrees, and specializations. It operates with different universities to provide online courses and degrees. In total Coursera has joined with 200 Universities in 29 Countries.
Future Plans:
BYJU’s wants to revolutionize the way millions of students think and learn. While the focus is to expand to international markets to help build a global brand, it is also working on creating learning programs in vernacular languages to provide access to quality content to students even in the remotest parts of the country. BYJU’s app has changed Indian education by efficiently merging productive techniques of teaching and learning. BYJU’s success is not measured by professional performance but rather by how many millions of students are learning more effectively.
The future of ed tech will resemble the present situation pretty closely but with the role of technology becoming ever more pervasive in the educational process. EdTech will see a continual model of innovation, testing, adaptation, and revisiting within the constraints of an existing and robust system and hopefully, that model will be one that acknowledges, learns from, and remembers its history.
FAQs:
Who is BYJU’s Owner?
Byju Raveendran.
Is BYJU’s an Indian company?
BYJU’s is an Indian multinational educational technology company.
Are BYJU’s classes for free?
EdTech company BYJU’s has introduced free live classes on its platform. Students will now be able to learn real-time from BYJU’s teachers by reserving their preferred topic and slot from the schedule on the App.
Are BYJU’s Trial classes free?
Yes, the trial classes are free.
Is BYJU’s classes mapped to the school syllabus/ curriculum?
Yes, there are multiple batches available for students to select from to suit their study plan as per the school syllabus.
What is different about BYJU’S Classes? How is it better than tuition?
BYJU’S Classes bring the top teachers in the country, individual attention from second teachers, and unlimited access to their interactive learning app. All this combined with the convenience of learning from the comfort and safety of your home makes BYJU’S Classes the best online home tuition program for your child. All these features are not available in regular tuition classes.
