Indian edtech giant Byju's expands globally, launches Future School

Edtech giant Byju’s, which is valued at around $13 billion, has globally launched its 1:1 live online learning platform ‘Byju’s Future School’. The Bengaluru-based firm has 80 million registered students on its flagship learning app. Byju’s Future School will be available in the US, UK, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico in May and will progressively expand to more geographies in the near future. This builds on the success of Byju’s subsidiary WhiteHat Jr in India and select countries globally.

Byju’s Future School helps cross the bridge from passive to active learning by offering an interactive learning platform that blends real-time instruction with lessons that generate creative outcomes for kids aged between 6-18 years. At launch, Byju’s Future School will offer coding and Math with the aim of fostering engagement and personalized learning through a live 1:1 teaching experience.

“We believe that through technology, we can inspire kids all over the world to fall in love with learning,” said Byju Raveendran, founder and chief executive of Byju’s. “Our global expansion comes at a critical time as families are actively looking for supplemental learning that encourages their children to be creative and learn by doing. This launch furthers our vision of creating active learners across the world.”

The proprietary activity-based curriculum for coding helps children learn concepts through creating and building applications, facilitated by an expert teacher. The math program is built on a curriculum anchored on storytelling to help students learn in an engaging manner. It would also help to understand real-life math applications. Both programmes are designed to help children create on their own and learn as per their pace and style with their teacher. Karan Bajaj, founder and CEO of subsidiary WhiteHat Jr, will spearhead Byju’s Future School’s global expansion.

“Our mission to empower the next generation to think differently, to ignite creative zeal, to make them creators will get a huge boost with the launch of Byju’s Future School in more countries, offering multiple subjects,” said Bajaj. “This is a purpose-driven expansion and we are confident that more and more students globally will gain from this initiative.”

Last year, Byju’s acquired Mumbai-based coding start-up WhiteHat Jr for $300 million.

New subjects such as science, music, English and fine arts are being developed based on the philosophy of making children creators. This would inspire them to explore and make mobile apps, websites, games, music, and art.  Powered by 11,000 qualified women teachers based in India engaging with students from English-speaking countries, Byju’s Future School is further targeting to penetrate deeper into non-English speaking markets such as Mexico and Brazil. The coding curriculum will also be available in Spanish and Portuguese, besides onboarding qualified women teachers who engage with students in these two countries.

Byju’s Future School is committed to enabling kids to become active learners and channel their natural creativity through an engaging curriculum and personalized live 1:1 teacher attention. The initiative is backed by a strong women-only teaching team majorly based out of India, and fast expanding in non-English countries such as Mexico and Brazil.

Byju’s global expansion move comes at a time when the firm closed the deal to acquire exam preparation firm Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL) for nearly $1 billion. The stock-and-cash deal is the biggest in the education space, said sources. Experts said the acquisition and the move to expand globally will help Byju’s further dominate the market and increase its lead over its competitors, such as SoftBank-backed Unacademy, Vedantu, and traditional education institutes.

READ MORE: Byju's acquires Aakash Educational Services for $1 billion over Zoom call

Sneak peek into Byju’s Future School

. Will be available in the US, UK, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico.

. Offers a proprietary curriculum supported by 1:1 live online teaching.

. Coding and Math will be available at launch.

. New subjects like Music, English and Fine Arts will be part of future launches.

. 11,000 women teachers based in India engaging with students from English-speaking countries.

. 80 million registered students on Byju’s flagship learning app.