Byju’s bankers have also suggested other fundraising alternatives including an IPO in the US or a merger with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), although the options are less likely than the IPO in India.
Byju’s founder Byju Raveendran.
Edtech startup Byju’s is currently in talks to raise between $ 400-$ 600 million through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 2022.
The Bengaluru-based company is aiming to file its initial IPO documents by the second quarter of 2022, Bloomberg reported citing two people aware of the matter. It could also close its pre-IPO fundraising in the coming weeks at a valuation of $ 21 billion, one person cited above said.
Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.
Meanwhile, the company’s bankers including Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase who are also involved in the current fundraising are discussing a valuation of $ 40 billion to $ 50 billion. The final decision will be taken after depending on the final results and investor demands, the report added.
The bankers have also suggested other fundraising alternatives including the IPO in the US or a merger with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) although the options are less likely than the IPO in India.
The online education startup has been on an acquisition spree with online exam preparation platform Gradeup being the latest in line. Gradeup will be rebranded as Byju’s Exam Prep and will cater to students preparing for 150+ exams over 25 exam categories covering Govt Jobs and PG Entrance Exams such as IAS, GATE, CAT, Bank PO/Clerk, Defence, UGC-NET, etc.
This is the fifth acquisition by Byju’s in the past one year after coding firms Whitehat Jr and Toppr, offline test preparation firms Aakash Educational Services and Great Learning.
In an interview with Moneycontrol in July, Raveendran had said that the company will evaluate IPO plans in 12 to 18 months. However, the company has raised a total of 1.5 billion in the last 18 months and its valuation stands at $ 16.5 billion.
The last fundraise was of $ 350 million from UBS, Blackstone, ADQ, Phoenix Rising and Zoom founder Eric Yuan in June. Moneycontrol reported on August 25 that Byju’s is in talks to raise $ 500 million more in a debt round via term loan B.
