Byju’s Raises $800 Mn at $22 Bn Valuation

Edtech giant Byju's company has raised over $800 million through an upcoming round, which saw Bengaluru-based CEO and founder Byju Raveendran make a $400 million investment.

The round included participation from Investors Sumeru Ventures, Vitruvian Partners and BlackRock with an estimated value of $22 billion. This makes it the highest-valued startup in India.

According to media reports Raveendran's stake within the company has increased to 25 percent. Prior to this round the stake in Byju's holdings for promoters of Byju's was estimated to be 22.55 percent as per Financial Tracker's estimations. Byju's is also in discussions to launch an initial round of $1 billion.

Also read: CityMall Raises $75 Mn in Series C Round Led by Norwest

Byju's was able to raise its most recent tranche for an estimated value at $1.8 billion.

According to Byju, there are more than 150 million users on its platform, with an average annual rate of renewal at 86 percent. Although the company didn't release its most recent financial figures, it did report an 82.31 percent growth in its operating revenues up to Rs 2,381 crore for FY20. In the same time, its losses increased 30 times to 262 crore.

The firm was in the process of reaching the profitability mark in FY19.

In addition to the increase in fundraising, Byju's has also spent approximately $2.5 billion to acquire half a dozen startups. Aakash Educational Services was the biggest acquisition for the company with a cost of about $1 billion. The company also paid about 600 million in exchange for Great Learning and $500 million for the US-based Epic which is a reading platform. The company recently purchased the recruitment platform Superset through Great Learning.

Also read: Wakefit Slips Into Losses After Crossing Rs 400 Cr in Revenue

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CityMall Raises $75 Mn in Series C Round Led by Norwest

A social-commerce platform called CityMall has received Rs 574 crore or $75 million, led by Norwest Venture Partners and participated by other investors, both existing and new investors. This is the third round of funding for the firm based in Gurugram in the past year.

CityMall has granted the allotment of one equity share and 11771 preferential shares at the price of 458,716 to raise $574 crore (or $75m), the regulatory reports indicate. Norwest Capital and Citius Fund are the two biggest participants in the round, with an investment of Rs 142.52 crore and the sum of Rs 112.52 crore, respectively. Jungle Venture, Elevation Capital, AM Holding, General Catalysts, Waterbridge Ventures, and Accel have a total of Rs 90 crore, 60 crores, and the sum of Rs 56.2 crore as well as the sum of Rs 30 crore and 22.5 crores, respectively.

Entrackr was exclusive information regarding this particular round back in October. CityMall raised $11 million in Series A in March and $22.5 million Series B by June. As per Financial Tracker's estimations, the company is valued at 320 million dollars in its Series C round.

Also read: Wakefit Slips Into Losses After Crossing Rs 400 Cr in Revenue

Additionally, the company has also expanded its ESOP option pool from 1381 to 2912 options, and it is now worth 135 crores, equivalent to $17.5 million.

CityMall offers the categories of lifestyle, grocery, and other categories by establishing an extensive network of community-based resellers in tier II as well as III towns. The company claims to have 200K customers and 20,000 resellers in eight cities within Haryana. Haryana.

CityMall has earned money at the beginning of the year during the year-end of March 2021. The operating revenue was the sum of Rs 14.95 crore for FY21. However, it suffered a loss of the equivalent of 10.4 crores over the same time.

CityMall's rival that is closed, DealShare, recently added to the Series E funding round with 45 million dollars. The Tiger Global-backed business was the second unicorn to emerge from the world of social commerce, following Meesho. CityMall is also in competition against Farmio by Meesho and a couple of others.

Also read: SharkTank's Ashneer Grover Demands Rs.4000 Crore to Leave His Company BharatPe

The Angad Kikla and Naisheel Vardhan-led company joined a few startups which have raised three capital rounds over the past twelve months. On Monday, the B2B animal protein market Captain Fresh announced its $50 million Series C round. The Bengaluru-based business's previous two rounds took place in July and December this year.

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