Investment in knowledge pays best dividend! And Byju Raveendran evidently makes this adage true
04 Mar 2021 17:40:45
Kerala is the most literate state in India. But it is also true that due to lack of employment opportunities, young Keralites go abroad in search of jobs. In 2001, Byju Raveendran hailing from Azikode, Kerala after finishing his Mechanical Engineering took up a job in a Singapore based Shipping Company. During his short holidays to India, he used to help his friends prepare for CAT (IIM entrance exam). Without any intentions of pursuing MBA, he appeared for the CAT exam twice with his friends. He was ranked amongst the top 1% of the MBA aspirants. Inspite of getting selected in three IIMs he did not pursue MBA.
In 2005, he left his shipping job and returned to India to start CAT exam preparation classes. 1200 students enrolled in his class in the first 2 months itself. Gradually he started classes in 9 cities. Seeing the increasing demand of students, he started online classes in 2009. But he noticed that the aspirants trying to crack the very difficult CAT exam did not even know basic mathematics. To help them, Byju started a company by the name 'Think and Learn' in 2011. This is Byju's parent company.
Today, Byju has 3 crore subscribers. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Manipal Group's Ranjan Pai, Chinese Tencent (owner of PUBG), Qatar Investment Fund, South Africa's Naspers, Sequoia Capital are some of its big investors.
In 2015, Byju first mobile app was launched. Online classes for mathematics and science to students from sixth to twelfth grade were made available. In the following year, classes were started for fourth and fifth grade students. Lessons on the app are taught through videos. The app checks if students understand the concepts. Depending on the response of the students, they are taught the next lesson, or the previous lesson is re-explained. Within 3 months of the app's launch, 20 lakh children had downloaded it.
After Paytm and OYO, it is the third startup in India to reach a valuation of USD 10 billion (called decacorn).
In June 2020, in partnership with Disney, Disney Byju Early Learn App was launched. It has been developed for children from 5 to 8 years. In August 2020, Byju’s bought Whitehat Jr for USD 300 million from Mumbai-based Karan Bajaj. Whitehat Jr is an Edutech teaching software coding to children.
Byju Raveendran owns 26% stake in Byju along with his wife Divya Gokulnath and brother Riju Raveendran. Byju plans to expand its operations to the United States, Canada, England, and Australia soon.
The ubiquity of smartphones, availability of internet at rock bottom prices, COVID lockdown, etc. all has led to a huge surge in demand for online education. Byju’s added 13.5 lakh new subscribers during the two months of March to April’2020.
When asked what he attributes his success to, Byju Raveendran says, "It's not just a business, it's a passion that has become a business." Ambitious new business aspirants have a lot to learn from these words of Byju Raveendran.
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