BYE-JU'S
334.1 هزار بار بازدید -
12 ماه پیش
-
Byju Raveendran dipped his toes
Byju Raveendran dipped his toes in edtech as early as 2009 with his business's first website, Noesis. Noesis is a philosophical term in Greek philosophy referring to the activity of the intellect. On this site, Byju Raveendran describes himself as zealous, extraordinary, and peerless.
In August 2009, Noesis partnered with Times of India to offer a one-day computer-based mock CAT in major cities across India. The financial success of this experiment was formative for Byju, whose eyes were opened to the massive scope of edtech for the first time.
In the midst of all of this, peerless Byju Raveendran had found an equal in one of his students: Divya Gokulnath. In her personal blog, she describes herself as a fearless rebel who lives life spontaneously. They were married in 2009 and Divya Gokulnath became a BYJU'S co-founder in 2011. Today, Divya Gokulnath is an essential part of the company.
Realising that Noesis didn't roll off the tongue, in 2011 Byju Raveendran rebranded the company to WE Global, WE standing for Winning Edge. By this point he had adopted a freemium model - students could take mock tests for free and if they were impressed, they could pay for classes.
The freemium model extended to classes themselves, too. Students could take one free workshop before deciding whether or not to join, and even after joining Byju promised a full refund if the student wasn't satisfied - which had never happened, apparently.
In December of 2011, Byju made the pivot from WE Global to Think and Learn Pvt. Ltd. which is the parent company of BYJU'S today. A year later, in December of 2012, BYJU'S made the fateful decision to raise their first round of venture capital: $10M from Manipal Group.
By 2013, BYJU'S truly came into their own as an edtech company. They had already scaled their class' reach via VSAT streaming, but in 2013 they began offering their students tablets in partnership with Samsung. They charged ₹6,000-50,000 annually for their courses.
They were charging ₹6,000-50,000 annually for their courses back then, and had brought in gross revenue of ₹14 crore.
In 2015 with the launch of their app, the company's brand name finally changed from BYJU'S Classes to the monolithic BYJU'S that it is today.
In August of 2020, BYJU'S acquired WhiteHat Jr and all hell broke loose, because WhiteHat Jr was notorious for using misleading, FOMO-centric advertising to manipulate parents into buying their courses. Anyone who spoke out about them was sued by the company including Pradeep Poonia and Aniruddha Malpani. Their social media accounts were blocked, videos were taken down, and to this day, Dhruv Rathee’s video on WhiteHat Jr is censored to avoid a take down. And yet in spite of all of this, Byu Raveendran seemed pretty confident that this was going to be a solid acquisition, that WhiteHat Jr would be beneficial to BYJU’S. His tone has changed in recent months though, as WhiteHat Jr appears to be a loss-leader for the company.
Today, BYJU'S is in a debt crisis, and they're looking at Aakash to solve this problem for them via an IPO. They are planning to raise $1 billion from Aakash’s IPO and would use that money to repay their loans. And the reason why they think this IPO will go well is because Aakash has a great reputation, they’ve been around for a long time, and Indians know that brand. Their focus is entirely on this now. Aakash is an offline business, which is the complete opposite of what they’ve been building for many years. And we’re seeing Unacademy and PhysicsWallah doing the same thing here, moving into the offline space. The only difference between them and BYJU’S is that they grew way too fast in the online direction, and ended up with customers who couldn’t pay EMIs, banks who expect those EMIs to be repaid, leading to huge losses. They didn’t want those losses published because that would destroy their credibility, but they seem to be doing that anyways by withholding that info from lenders who expect BYJU’S to give them an audit of their financials.
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Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/5rGPalo...
#byjus #bwm #startups
In August 2009, Noesis partnered with Times of India to offer a one-day computer-based mock CAT in major cities across India. The financial success of this experiment was formative for Byju, whose eyes were opened to the massive scope of edtech for the first time.
In the midst of all of this, peerless Byju Raveendran had found an equal in one of his students: Divya Gokulnath. In her personal blog, she describes herself as a fearless rebel who lives life spontaneously. They were married in 2009 and Divya Gokulnath became a BYJU'S co-founder in 2011. Today, Divya Gokulnath is an essential part of the company.
Realising that Noesis didn't roll off the tongue, in 2011 Byju Raveendran rebranded the company to WE Global, WE standing for Winning Edge. By this point he had adopted a freemium model - students could take mock tests for free and if they were impressed, they could pay for classes.
The freemium model extended to classes themselves, too. Students could take one free workshop before deciding whether or not to join, and even after joining Byju promised a full refund if the student wasn't satisfied - which had never happened, apparently.
In December of 2011, Byju made the pivot from WE Global to Think and Learn Pvt. Ltd. which is the parent company of BYJU'S today. A year later, in December of 2012, BYJU'S made the fateful decision to raise their first round of venture capital: $10M from Manipal Group.
By 2013, BYJU'S truly came into their own as an edtech company. They had already scaled their class' reach via VSAT streaming, but in 2013 they began offering their students tablets in partnership with Samsung. They charged ₹6,000-50,000 annually for their courses.
They were charging ₹6,000-50,000 annually for their courses back then, and had brought in gross revenue of ₹14 crore.
In 2015 with the launch of their app, the company's brand name finally changed from BYJU'S Classes to the monolithic BYJU'S that it is today.
In August of 2020, BYJU'S acquired WhiteHat Jr and all hell broke loose, because WhiteHat Jr was notorious for using misleading, FOMO-centric advertising to manipulate parents into buying their courses. Anyone who spoke out about them was sued by the company including Pradeep Poonia and Aniruddha Malpani. Their social media accounts were blocked, videos were taken down, and to this day, Dhruv Rathee’s video on WhiteHat Jr is censored to avoid a take down. And yet in spite of all of this, Byu Raveendran seemed pretty confident that this was going to be a solid acquisition, that WhiteHat Jr would be beneficial to BYJU’S. His tone has changed in recent months though, as WhiteHat Jr appears to be a loss-leader for the company.
Today, BYJU'S is in a debt crisis, and they're looking at Aakash to solve this problem for them via an IPO. They are planning to raise $1 billion from Aakash’s IPO and would use that money to repay their loans. And the reason why they think this IPO will go well is because Aakash has a great reputation, they’ve been around for a long time, and Indians know that brand. Their focus is entirely on this now. Aakash is an offline business, which is the complete opposite of what they’ve been building for many years. And we’re seeing Unacademy and PhysicsWallah doing the same thing here, moving into the offline space. The only difference between them and BYJU’S is that they grew way too fast in the online direction, and ended up with customers who couldn’t pay EMIs, banks who expect those EMIs to be repaid, leading to huge losses. They didn’t want those losses published because that would destroy their credibility, but they seem to be doing that anyways by withholding that info from lenders who expect BYJU’S to give them an audit of their financials.
Follow us on Social Media:
Twitter: Twitter: bwmillionaires
LinkedIn: LinkedIn: backstagewithmillionaires
Instagram: Instagram: backstagewithmillionaires
Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/5rGPalo...
#byjus #bwm #startups
12 ماه پیش
در تاریخ 1402/05/05 منتشر شده
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