News: BYJU'S acquires upskilling platform Great Learning and learning app Toppr

Learning & Development

BYJU'S acquires upskilling platform Great Learning and learning app Toppr

Byju’s' acquisition of Great Learning is key to entering the upskilling and reskilling segment while Toppr’s acquisition consolidates and improves its market position in the K-12 learning segment.
BYJU'S acquires upskilling platform Great Learning and learning app Toppr

EdTech startup Byju's has acquired Great Learning, an upskilling platform for professionals and those in higher education, and after-school learning app Toppr, in a cash and stock deal.  

Byju’s is expected to shell out $600 million to acquire Great Learning and another $150 million for the acquisition of Toppr. Further, according to regulatory filings, it has allotted preference shares worth over Rs 730 crores (or roughly $98 million) to existing shareholders of Great Learning, LMK Holdings Ltd. and Matrix Benefit Trust. It also allotted shares worth over Rs 425 crores (or roughly $57.2 million) to seven shareholders of Toppr: Helion Venture Partners, Eight Roads, Alteria Capital, Ramakant Sharma - founder of Livspace, Kaizen PE, FH Learn LLP, and Learn 2 Holdings Ltd. 

The acquisition of Great Learning is key for Byju's to enter the upskilling and reskilling segment and is also expected to increase Byju’s' offerings for the international markets. Great Learning, a seven-year-old platform, provides 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. Toppr, founded in 2013, at present provides a learning app for kindergarten to 12 (K-12) students, allowing them to take live classes and tests and view recorded learning content. 

Byju’s' latest acquisition comes just a week after it shelled out $500 million to acquire US-based Epic, an online reading platform for children. In April, this year, it also signed one of the largest acquisition deals in the Indian EdTech space by acquiring Aakash Educational Services Ltd for about $1 billion, thereby continuing its spree of large acquisitions to expand its education services beyond the Indian market and across categories. 

At a time when upskilling is central to moving ahead and keeping up with the changes in the hybrid workplace, the acquisition of learning platforms is a step in the right direction to increase the quality and accessibility of EdTech to all professionals and students.  

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Topics: Learning & Development, Learning Technology, Online Learning Solutions, Skilling

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