Byju's raises $150 million from Qatar Investment Authority, Owl Ventures

Bengaluru-based Byju's, which is the world's most valued education technology firm and counts Sequoia, Lightspeed and Tencent among its backers, has a couple of new investors on board. In its latest funding round led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar, the startup has raised $150 million.

Owl Ventures, a US-based player focussing on the world's leading education technology companies, reportedly participated in the round too, marking its first investment in an Indian startup. The latest round comes just seven months after Byju's raised $540 million in a round led by South African media giant Naspers that had made it the fifth-most valued company in the country.

Byju's, which has been growing at 100 per cent for the last three years, reportedly intends to deploy the funds raised in expanding its global footprint and creating innovative and engaging learning products for new-age students. "Indian ed-tech firms attracting interest from eminent investors demonstrate that India is pioneering the digital learning space globally. High adoption and 85 per cent annual renewal from small towns and cities shows the increasing acceptance of digital learning as a primary tool for learning at home," Byju Raveendran, the company's founder and CEO, said in a statement.

It's been a great year for Byju's so far. In April, the edtech player boasting over 35 million registered users and 2.4 million paid subscribers crossed Rs 200 crore in monthly revenue. The following month Byju's announced that it had turned profitable on a full year basis in FY19. The company is now aiming for a revenue target of over Rs 3,000 crore in the current fiscal, up from Rs 1,430 crore last year.

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