Silver Lake is leading a fresh series of spending in education-technology group Byju's as business interest continues to grow with the increasing popularity of internet-based learning.
U.S.-based private equity company Silver Lake opened a $500 million funding for the Bengaluru, India-based company Silver Lake has valued the India online learning platform at nearly $11 billion, a source with knowledge of the transaction said. Existing capital contributors Owl Ventures, General Atlantic and Tiger Global pooled capital in the funding series, Byju's announced in a media release.
Byju's is currently in discussions with other investors for more cash. Based on a Bloomberg News report quoting sources, the startup is close to receiving around $400 million from Yuri Milner's DST International - although the investment has yet to be finalized.
Things are looking good for India education-technology despite the continuing worldwide health crisis. The group has raised another third-round funding months after it finalized funding in June with capital group Bond, at around $10.5 billion. Based on figures by Crunchbase, this is the fifth successful funding secured by the Think & Learn Pvt. Ltd-operated company this year. At the start of 2020, the startup raised $200 million. In June, it secured $100 million, followed by $122 million in August.
For Silver Lake, with its large scale investments in technology, technology-enabled and related industries, Byju's is the second India company it has invested in in 2020. Silver Lake had poured $747 million into India's Reliance Industries division Jio Platforms in May and promised $600 million more the following month.
Byju caters to science and math subjects for K-12 students through video and other activities. Its other backers include the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Tiger Global Management and Naspers Ltd.
According to Byju founder and chief executive Byju Raveendran the group feels lucky to be part of a sector of "positive relevance" during the pandemic. Byju had made a contribution to India's educational technology that "helps parents, teachers and students experience and understand its value," Sandeep Soni of Financial Express quoted him as saying.
