Byju’s Founder Is On A Buying Spree To Keep His EdTech Company Best In Class

This story is part of Forbes’ coverage of India’s Richest 2021. See the full list here.

Edtech entrepreneur Byju Raveendran is on a buying spree. Since January he’s plunked down $2.4 billion to expand Byju’s, his Bangalore edtech giant, including $950 million for Indian test-prep provider Akash Educational Service in April and $600 million for Singapore’s Great Learning in July. In total, he’s snapped up 15 companies across India, the rest of Asia and the U.S. over the past six years. The net worth of the 41-year-old founder and CEO rose by a third to $4.05 billion this year.

“We have multibillion dollar opportunities for growth in India and the U.S.,”says Raveendran, adding that he hopes to reach $1 billion in U.S. revenue over the next three years. Byju’s parent Think & Learn saw consolidated revenue rise 82% to 23.9 billion rupees ($325 million) in the year ended in March 2020 (the latest results available) from the previous year as its net loss widened to 2.6 billion rupees. The pandemic helped boost registered users to over 100 million and clock 6.5 million annual subscriptions.

“In an era where growth and scale are seen as more valuable than the path to profitability, the trajectory of Byju is a true case study,” says Ganesh Natarajan, chairman of investment platform 5F World. “The challenge will be the ability to integrate their myriad acquisitions and present a cogent and credible palette of learning opportunities to their customers.”

Raveendran offered test-prep services before launching Think & Learn with his wife Divya Gokulnath in 2011 and his eponymous tutoring app. It’s since become the world’s most valuable edtech company ($16 billion), attracting marquee investors like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, China’s Tencent and U.S. private equity firm General Atlantic.