Bangalore-based unicorn edtech startup, Byju’s, acquires Gradeup, an Indian online platform for exam preparations. However, the value of the acquisition is yet to be disclosed. After the merger, Gradeup is now familiarized as Byju’s Exam Prep.
Gradeup, in partnership with Byju’s as ‘Byju’s Exam Prep’, will serve its students with over 25 types of exam preparations. Categories include Post Graduate entrance exams like, CAT, UGC-NET, LAW, IAS, GATE, Bank Probationary Officer, SSC, JEE, etc. CEO of Gradeup, Shobhit Bhatnagar, shared that by bringing together the live classes, assessments, and upgraded study material, the platform has built an advanced offering for students preparing for competitive exams. In the student-based environment with various choices of learning and preparing for different courses, students will have a seamless learning experience. Platform offers:
⦁ Online classroom program by most efficient faculty
⦁ The comprehensive and student-friendly study material for over 150 exams
⦁ Latest pattern test series and quizzes
The collaboration with Gradeup will establish Byju’s name in the online exam preparation space, expanding the user count, thereby strengthening its position in the education technology ecosystem. This partnership will be fueling the company to give sturdy competition to its rivals including UpGrad, Unacademy, Amazon Academy, etc. With Aakash, an online learning platform, already on board with Byju’s, Gradeup merging too, will contribute to set up milestones in the edtech field, especially in the exam preparation division.
In this view, Byju’s founder and CEO, Byju Raveendran, shared his words, “With Gradeup on board, we will be able to further scale and expand our test-prep offerings in postgraduate level exams.” “Gradeup has already proved its mettle and we are excited to join forces with the seasoned team. We aim to bring our complementary strengths and expertise together to create engaging and personalized learning experiences,” added Raveendran.
Bhatnagar stated that together with Byju’s, they will accelerate their growth and expand their reach across the country. In addition, he said, “Further, we will leverage their strengths in content to deepen our current product offering and broaden our coverage of exams.”
Byju’s: Company’s overview
Founded in 2011, Byju’s is a Bangalore-based Indian edtech company, operating its business worldwide. Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath are the founders of the platform, which now values at $16.5 billion, positioning it as the world’s most valuable edtech company. Byju’s also offers its services through an application, Byju’s- The Learning App, which assists the students to learn through their smartphones.
With the global outbreak of covid-19, where schools and other educational institutions are kept closed, students and even operating professionals from all over the globe are continuously working on ways to learn, skill up and keep themselves updated with the knowledge provided through these online education-tech platforms. Grabbing this opportunity of high demand, Byju’s is acquiring companies that are more likely in the education technology segment. Till the current date, Byju’s has 7 acquisitions as Indian and US companies, which in total has valued at more than $2 billion(INR 200 crores). Following are the company’s acquisitions with the value of each acquisition:
Acquisition Value of the deal
Osmo $120 million
WhiteHat $300 million
Aakash Educational Services Ltd. $950 million
Epic $500 million
Great Learning $600 million
Along with the above acquisitions, Byju’s also acquired TutorVista, LablnApp, Scholr, and most recently, Gradeup. With these mergers, Byju’s is expected to dominate the edtech market, especially in our country in $180 billion education sector.
