Byju's Acquires Learning App Toppr, Upskilling Platform Great Learning In 750 Million Deal

The acquisition of Great Learning will help the edtech company to expand its services in the upskilling and reskilling segment.

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New Delhi: In its quest of acquisition ed-tech unicorn Byju’s, has now completed the takeover of after-school learning app Toppr and upskilling platform Great Learning in a cash and stock deal. As per the regulatory filings filed by the company, the company, has acquired six startups in 2021, across India and the US.

The education company is expected to spend almost $600 million to acquire Great Learning and another $150 million for the acquisition of Toppr, according to the publication Mint.

In 2021 alone, Byju’s has shelled out more than $2.2 billion in acquiring complementary businesses.

How will the acquisitions help Byjus?

With the acquisition of Great Learning, the ed-tech company will now expand its services to the upskilling and reskilling segment. It will face stiff competition from upGrad and Blackstone-backed Simplilearn. The current acquisition will help the company to extend its offerings to the international markets.

Great Learning is a seven-year-old company offering higher learning degree, diploma, and certificate courses across domains such as data science, digital marketing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, in association with recognized universities globally. According to regulatory filings, through a share swap, Great Learning’s existing shareholders LMK Holdings Ltd and Matrix Benefit Trust have been allotted Byju’s Series F preference shares worth ₹733.1 crore (or roughly $98 million).

Byju’s will in exchange acquire 2.583 million ordinary shares in Great Learning Education Pte Ltd, as per the filings.

According to other details, the company will be offering 17,036 Series F preference shares worth Rs 425.9 crore (or roughly $57.2 million), on the higher end of the price band, to Toppr’s existing shareholders including - Helion Venture Partners, Eight Roads, Alteria Capital, Ramakant Sharma - founder of Livspace; Kaizen PE, FH Learn LLP, and Learn 2 Holdings Ltd.