Abstract

Think and Learn Private Limited (TALPL) was founded in the year 2011 by an engineering graduate, Byju Raveendran (Raveendran), as an online educational service provider offering teaching services leveraging web-based technologies. In the year 2015, TALPL introduced the Byju’s app, an innovative online interactive education tool that created an interesting learning environment for students from the school going age to graduate students and for those preparing for competitive exams. The concept, scalability of the business model, and ever-changing educational environment in India and across the globe opened the doors to growth for TALPL, and attracted large scale investments from prominent startup investors across the globe. TALPL sponsored Byju’s went on to become a unicorn and then a decacorn, the first EdTech company in India to achieve the feat and the second of all the startups in the country after Paytm to do so. The present case study can be used to discuss the business model of Byju’s app, and to look at the different sources of financing available to startup companies, the different stages in financing, the EdTech industry, and the role of technology in revolutionizing the education sector in India and in the world.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Sources of startup financing
• Stages of startup financing
• Evolution of the EdTech industry in India
• Advancements in education technology

Keywords

Byju's; Byju Raveendran; EdTech Industry; Online Education; Education Technology; EdTech Startup; Startup Financing; Venture Capitalists; Angel Investors; e-learning; Financial Inclusion; Learning Analytics