Edtech giant Byju's acquires online exam preparation platform Gradeup

Byju’s, the world’s most valuable edtech company with a valuation of $16.5 billion, said it has acquired Gradeup, one of India's largest online exam preparation platforms. The company didn’t reveal the value of the deal.

The partnership will bolster Byju’s presence in the fast-growing online competitive examination preparation category along with harnessing Gradeup’s pedagogy and student reach. It would help the firm increase its lead over its competitors such as Unacademy, Simplilearn, UpGrad, Amazon Academy, and traditional education institutes, to tap the country’s $180-billion education sector.

Gradeup will be rebranded as Byju’s Exam Prep and will cater to students preparing for over 150 exams over 25 exam categories. It would be covering government jobs and PG entrance exams such as IAS, GATE, CAT, Bank PO/Clerk, Defence, UGC-NET.

“With Gradeup on board, we will be able to further scale and expand our test-prep offerings in postgraduate level exams,” said Byju Raveendran, founder, and CEO, Byju’s. “Gradeup has already proved its mettle and we are excited to join forces with the seasoned team. We aim to bring our complementary strengths and expertise together to create engaging and personalised learning experiences.”

Shobhit Bhatnagar, CEO, Gradeup, said by combining live classes, assessments, and quality study material, the firm has built a highly specialised offering for students preparing for competitive exams. 

“Together with Byju’s, we will accelerate our growth and expand our reach across the country,” said Bhatnagar. “Further, we will leverage their strengths in content to deepen our current product offering and broaden our coverage of exams.”

Byju’s has over 100 million registered students and 6.5 million paid subscribers. With Aakash Educational Services Ltd. already being a part of Byju’s since May 2021, offering its highly effective learning ecosystem, Gradeup coming on board will help the firm scale up in the test preparation segment further. Additionally, the firm said the students will have access to high quality, personalised and holistic learning experience, with a wide array of test prep classes and offerings to choose from.

Byju’s is on an acquisition spree in India and globally as the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of online education. Students and professionals are looking to upgrade their skills, while schools and offices remain shut. The start-up has now acquired about seven companies in India and the US this year and spent more than $2 billion in the past six months on these acquisitions, according to sources. The inorganic route is expected to help Bengaluru-based Byju’s to dominate the edtech market.

Some of these deals include the $1 billion buy of New Delhi-based Aakash Educational Services (AESL) in April and the $600 million acquisition of Singapore-headquartered Great Learning, a leading global player in professional and higher education.

Last month, Byju’s acquired US-based digital reading platform Epic for $500 million. In August last year, Byju’s acquired Mumbai-based coding start-up WhiteHat Jr for $300 million. In 2019, Byju’s bought US-based educational gaming company Osmo for $120 million in a stock-and-cash deal. Byju’s is aiming to become one of the largest players in the space in the US, with a target to hit revenues of $1 billion in the next three years.