Edtech major Byju's acquires US-based Epic for $500M

After acquiring Aakash Educational Services, Bengaluru-based edtech major Byju's today announced it has acquired US-based digital reading platform Epic in a $500 million cash and stock deal.

This is Byju's second-largest acquisition deal. Previously, The edtech major had acquired Aakash Educational Services (AESL) for nearly $1 billion. The development comes almost a month after it had raised $50 million in a Series F round from IIFL's private equity fund.

Founded in 2013 by Suren Markosian and Kevin Donahue, Epic is an online digital reading platform built on a collection of 40,000+ popular, high-quality books from 250+ of the best publishers that helps to fuel curiosity and bring confidence in kids aged 12 and under. The platform currently has two million teachers and a user base of 50 million students.

According to Crunchbase, Epic so far has raised over $51 million in its funding rounds from investors such as 500Startups, Maven Ventures, Brighteye Ventures, Social Starts, etc. The current deal will help Byju's to expand its presence in the US market.

“It is the largest B2C edtech platform in the K-12 segment and has a strong product capability that fits well into our overall plan of building an edtech ecosystem,” said Byju Raveendran.

This is not the first US-based acquisition for Byju's, Previously, It had acquired educational games maker Osmo in January 2019 for $120 million. Further, The startup aims to invest around $1 billion in the US market over the next couple of years.

Post-transaction, Suren and Kevin will be continuing with Epic, the company said in a statement.

Speaking on the development, Suren Markosian, CEO of Epic, said:

“We created Epic to make quality books more accessible to kids everywhere and to build a safe place for them to discover the joy and magic of reading in their own way...Together (with Byju’s), we can help empower future generations of kids by fostering a lifetime love for reading and learning."

Over the last two years, Byju's has made acquisitions worth over $2 billion, including Aakash Educational Services (AESL), Scholr, Osmo, Whitehat Jr., TutorVista, HashLearn, and reportedly GradeUp and Toppr.

The current deal is part of Byju's global expansion plan. In April 2021, The startup had launched the one-on-one learning platform ‘Byju’s Future School’ as a subsidiary under Byju’s.

Also Read:

• Byjus Partners with Google to offer free learning to students

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