“Source:- Business Today”
Education Technology company Byju’s has acquired Mumbai-based code training app WhiteHat Jr for $300 million as it looks to expand its dominant reach in the country.
The all-cash deal is Byju’s fifth acquisition and also its largest to date.
It had last acquired Osmo, a US-based educational gaming company, for $120 million in a stock-and-cash deal. The Osmo deal was Byju’s first-ever purchase of a US company in January 2019.
WhitHat Jr is a coding platform founded by Karan Bajaj the former CEO of Discovery Networks India. The ed-tech startup teaches students the fundamentals of coding and helps them build commercial-ready games, apps and animations.
In an official statement released by Byju’s on Wednesday evening, it will make substantial investments in WhiteHat Jr’s technology platform as well as product innovation whilst broadening the teacher base to cater to demand from new markets. Meanwhile, Bajaj will continue to head and scale the business in India and the US.
“WhiteHat Jr is the leader in the live online coding space. Karan has proven his mettle as an exceptional founder and the credit goes to him and his team for creating coding programs that are loved by kids. Under his leadership the company has achieved phenomenal growth in India and the US in a short span of time,” Byju’s founder and chief executive Byju Raveendran said in the statement.
WhitHat Jr had recently announced that it is mulling to expand to other markets like Australia, Canada, the UK, and New Zealand, besides already having a presence in the US since February 2020.
Where the acquisition will enable Byju’s to launch coding to students which is fast emerging as a key skill for the future, it will give WhiteHat Jr’s investors a strong exit from the company.