2 lakh to $2.1 billion: The success story of BYJU's

Consider yourself in a busy classroom while the teacher discusses an important idea. Everyone else seems to be following the teacher's words and nodding in approval, but you're feeling a little off because the answer is going over your head. Is this a situation that you can refer to? If you believe it or not, those incidents have arisen at least once in the life of a pupil. Every student learns at his or her own pace, and it is difficult for the teacher to cater to everyone in the class. Thankfully, the ed-tech market is expanding rapidly enough to fill the vacuum. When it comes to ed-tech in India, BYJU's is a brand that should not be forgotten. Continue reading to hear how an engineer's love for teaching led him to found the world's most valuable ed-tech business. 

From humble village boy to billionaire: Byju Raveendran

Byju Raveendran is the founder of BYJU's Lessons, an instructional technology business whose motto is "Fall in love with learning." Byju Raveendran founded BYJU's in the year 2011. According to Forbes' list of India's 100 Richest Individuals, he is the country's youngest billionaire, with a net worth of $3.05 billion (2020). The Learning Software from BYJU was published in 2015.

BYJU's founder and CEO, Byju Raveendran, was born in Azhikode, Kerela, in 1980. He graduated from Government Engineering College in Kannur, Kerela, with a B.Tech in mechanical engineering. Byju Raveendran served as a service engineer with a global shipping corporation before founding BYJU's. However, teaching was his true calling, which led him to found BYJU's. Byju Raveendran is an expert sportsperson who specializes in six different sports in addition to being an entrepreneur and a trainer. At the university level, he specialized in rugby, hockey, table tennis, and badminton. Byju sir, as he is known among his pupils, has passed the CAT twice with a perfect score. He, on the other hand, never enrolled in any IIM.

The idea behind Byju's

Byju Raveendran, a native of Azhikode, a small village in Kerela, worked as an engineer for a shipping firm in the United Kingdom. While studying, he began assisting his friends in preparing for the CAT test, an entrance exam for entry to India's top business schools. To put himself to the test, Byju took the exam and got a perfect score! He did not participate in any of the IIMs and instead began tutoring students in preparation for their mathematics exams. He took free mathematics lessons at first, but once he was confident in his skills, he began charging a fee.

His workshops became so common at one point that more than 20000 students attended one of them. He began shooting videos of the seminars he held in 2009, and he hasn't stopped since. 

Former students who had graduated from the IIMs urged him to participate in BYJU courses. The company ‘Think and Learn Pvt Ltd' was founded to develop educational content for students. In 2015, he released Byju's – The Learning App, which was downloaded by over 5.5 million people in its first year.

Byju: catering for the student community

BYJU's, a Bangalore-based educational technology network, is an online tutoring and coaching business that was established in 2011 and operates on a freemium model. Think and Learn Pvt Ltd is BYJU's parent company. BYJU's key objective is to include online video lectures for students in grades 1 through 12 as well as for people studying for competitive exams such as IIT-JEE, NEET, CAT, GRE, and GMAT. 

By making learning contextual and visual, BYJU's services include a world-class learning experience. The apps were created with each student's learning style in mind, taking into account their tempo, size, and learning style. BYJU'S is helping to pave the way for next-generation, location-independent learning systems that combine mobile, interactive content, and individualized learning methodologies. BYJU'S is also the official sponsor of the Indian Cricket Team. Byju's now has Shahrukh Khan as it's Brand Ambassador.

Working mechanism

Byju's runs on a freemium business model, in which it delivers both complimentary and charged (premium) offerings to its clients. The organization asks students to fill out a questionnaire or visit its website with their information and then gives them a free 15-day trial. If the free trial period has passed, the student must purchase the courses from BYJU to obtain access to the full content. The organization offers one-on-one mentoring to its subscribers as well as feedback to the parents of the children. BYJU's also provides classroom instruction in Noida, Gurgaon, and other cities. About 75 million students have signed up for the app, with 5.2 million paying monthly subscriptions. With students spending an average of 71 minutes a day on the app from over 1700 cities, the app is bringing a whole new way of learning through visual lessons. 

Funding and revenue

BYJU has earned nearly $2.1 billion in overall financing to date. BYJU’S has raised a total of $2.1B in funding over 17 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Sep 8, 2020, from a Private Equity round. BYJU's was the first Asian company to receive funds from the Chan-Zuckerberg Project, which was created by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan in 2016. 

A case analysis on BYJU's was featured in Harvard Business School's curriculum in March 2017. From a non-monetary standpoint, it is certainly one of every company's best accomplishments. That's why Byju's began to work on a global scale. In the fiscal year 2017-2018, BYJU registered revenue of Rs 490 crore, which increased to Rs 1,430 crore in the fiscal year 2018-2019, for a total of Rs 2,800 crore (FY20). In the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2021, it expects to double its sales to $1 billion.

BYJU’S has acquired 8 organizations. Their most recent acquisition was Scholar on Feb 18, 2021. They acquired Scholar for ₹180M. BYJU'S acquired Osmo, a Palo Alto-based producer of educational games, in early 2019 to convert the whole offline to the online learning experience. White Hat Jr, a programming start-up focused on educating children with coding skills, was also purchased by BYJU'S in 2020.

Byju's: around the globe

BYJU's was previously in the headlines for taking a constructive approach amid the coronavirus epidemic. Since schools in various parts of India were closed due to the coronavirus epidemic, BYJU's has made its learning app free for students until the end of April 2020 so that they can continue to study without interruption. 

BYJU is an innovative startup that has seen a lot of success in the industry. It implements stringent marketing tactics. BYJU's brand ambassador is Shahrukh Khan, one of Bollywood's most well-known actors. The company has successfully penetrated the Indian market and has also established a presence in the Middle East. BYJU's plans to extend to the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and other countries around the world. BYJU's purchased US-based learning network Osmo in January 2019 to extend its presence in the United States. Besides, the organization has collaborated with Disney to launch an early learning app for children in grades 1-3.