BlackRock slashes BYJU'S valuation by 62% to $8.3 billion

US-based investment management firm BlackRock has yet again slashed the valuation of BYJU's, the world’s most valued edtech startup by 62 per cent. This comes after BlackRock cut the fair value of BYJU'S from October 2022.

In its AMC filing with the Securities and Exchanges Commission, BlackRock, which owns less than 1 per cent equity in the edtech startup, has fixed the value of the company’s shares at $4,043,471, estimating BYJU'S fair value at $8.4 billion as of March 31, 2023.

The filings also showed that BlackRock sold its shares in BYJU'S during that period. Reportedly, in April, BlackRock slashed the valuation of BYJU'S by about 50 per cent to $11.5 billion from $22 billion.

However, BYJU's recently raised $250 million in new fundraise at a valuation cap of $22 billion, which speaks volumes that other investors still value the startup more than BlackRock.

Precisely, the new adjustments to fair values are made on the basis of AMC's internal assessment of the macro and microenvironment. It generally does not reflect a permanent markdown in the startup's overall valuation.

According to a PTI report, edtech major BYJU'S has started a fundraising round to garner around $700 million (about Rs 5,750 crore). The company expects to close fundraising of about $250 million soon and finish the entire funding round in about two weeks, PTI quoted sources as saying.

The company had previously raised $250 million from existing investors and Qatar Investment Authority.

The company was valued at $22 billion in the funding round of $800 million, announced in March 2022. BYJU'S seeks to become profitable by the end of this month.

The company retrenched 2,500 employees under the plan and hired 10,000 teachers for India and overseas.

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which conducted search operations in the premises of the edtech startup, recently said that the company was being vetted in relation to the foreign direct investment to the tune of Rs 28,000 crore, which the edtech major received during the period from 2011 to 2023. The agency further said that the company remitted Rs 9,754 crore to various foreign jurisdictions during the same period in the name of overseas direct investment.

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