Recently, Edtech major Byju’s partnered with NITI Aayog to provide free access to its tech-driven learning programmes for children from 112 ‘Aspirational districts’ of the country. The startup, which has raised $1.5 billion since the beginning of the pandemic last year, was most recently valued at $16.5 billion.

Read our blog to know all about the collaboration and its benefit to the students.

Aim of the Collaboration

The main objective of this partnership is to empower the children from underserved communities and locations with tech-enabled learning and access to quality education, and bring in positive systemic changes in the education ecosystem.

Main components of the Initiative

The collaboration will feature two main components:

• Byju’s Career Plus programme(under Aakash Byju’s), which will identify and provide high-quality coaching to 3,000 students of Classes 11 and 12 who aspire to appear for NEET and JEE.

• A voluntary programme will allow children of school-going age (Classes 6-12) to opt for scholastic content from Byju’s Learning App for three years, under the edtech’s social impact initiative, Education for All.

How Will Students be Selected?

Students for the career plus programme will be selected by means of a pre-designed test. They will be provided teaching and content material, along with mentoring support & guidance. The initiative will combine the best of classroom as well as online learning. Thus, it will provide a hybrid model of education.

Key Facts About the Collaboration

• Byju’s and NITI Aayog have partnered together to provide free access to tech-driven learning programmes to children from India’s 112 aspirational districts. 
• Aspirational districts represent India’s most developmentally challenged districts in terms of access to health and nutrition; education; agriculture and water resources; basic infrastructure; and financial inclusion and skill development. It includes states such as Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Karnataka, Sikkim, and others
• Under the project, a dedicated working group will focus on creating knowledge, innovation, and strategy support systems.
•  It will also actively monitor and evaluate programme implementation to enable efficacy and ensure better scope of delivery. 
• Effective use of technology in education can aid transformation and with Byju’s joining in, the students in these aspirational districts will get an opportunity to access quality education, he added.
• Apart from dedicated centres for implementing support, students will also have access to digital infrastructure in the form of devices (tablets/smartphones).

Byju’s ‘Education For All’ Programme

Byjus’s unveiled its social initiative ‘Education For All’ With An Aim To Empower 5 Million Children By 2025.

The programme aims at democratising education by ensuring that children across all economic backgrounds get equal access to quality learning opportunities.

This initiative will bridge the educational and digital divide by making quality learning accessible to the children in need. To commence the initiative, BYJU’S has signed MoUs with mission-aligned partners — The American India Foundation(AIF), Magic Bus, Save the Children, United Way and Vadham Tea.

Byju’s list of Major Acquisitions

Launched in 2015, Byju’s has 6.5 million annual paid subscriptions, and an annual renewal rate of 86 per cent. The Bengaluru-based firm is India’s one of the most valuable unicorn startups with a valuation of $16.5 billion.

Great Learning ($600 million)

Singapore-headquartered Great Learning was acquired by Byju’s for $600 million on Monday and the edtech major will invest an additional $400 million to strengthen its position in the professional and higher education segment. 

Great Learning will continue to operate as an independent unit in Byju’s group under the leadership of its founder and CEO Mohan Lakhamraju and co-founders Hari Nair and Arjun Nair.

Epic ($500 million)

Epic, a digital reading platform for kids situated in the United States, was acquired by Byju’s for $500 million. Epic caters to children aged 12 and under, and the acquisition would help Byju expand its US footprint. The merger will give the company access to Epic’s large worldwide user base, which is believed to have doubled in the last year and now includes more than 2 million teachers and 50 million children.

Epic CEO and co-founder Suren Markosian and other co-founder Kevin Donahue, will, however remain in their roles.

Aakash Educational Services ($1 billion)

In April this year, Byju’s had announced the acquisition of Aakash Educational Services Ltd (AESL) for close to $1 billion. AESL had already ventured into an omnichannel model when it raised money from Blackstone back in 2019 by offloading a 37.5 per cent stake valuing the company at nearly $500 million.

According to a company statement, Aakash continues to operate as a separate entity under Byju’s group. The test preparation company runs more than 200 tutoring centres in the country. 

WhiteHat Jr ($300 million)

In August of last year, Byju’s acquired WhiteHat Jr for $300 million, making it one of the largest edtech sectors back then. The edtech unicorn was looking to provide coding programmes for kids, an area of expertise for WhiteHat Jr.

It had also stated that it planned to make significant investments in WhiteHat Jr’s technology platform and product innovation, as well as increase the teacher base to meet demand from new markets.

Toppr

According to numerous media sources, Byju’s plans to spend around $150 million on the Toppr acquisition. The corporation has yet to confirm the deal.

According to industry sources, Byju’s was in advanced stages of talks to acquire its rival Toppr in February of this year, with the transaction valued at roughly $150 million.

In 2020, Byju’s secured over $1 billion from investors. Earlier this year, it raised close to $1.5 billion from a clutch of investors including Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group, UBS Group and Blackstone in tranches.

With this we come to the end of this blog. We covered all the major points related to the latest collaboration between Byju’s and NITI Aayog. We also shared some information on recent acquisitions of the edtech giant.

Keep reading on hranker.com for more such content.