According to a study by Global Industry Analysts, the global private tutoring market is projected to surpass $102.8 billion by 2018. The Indian private coaching industry was estimated to be worth $45 billion in 2015 and expected to reach $70 billion by 2017. The BYJU’s learning app from Think and Learn Pvt Ltd is one of the most heavily funded EdTech startups in this market.
BYJU’S Journey
Think and Learn Pvt Ltd or better known as BYJU’s was founded in 2011 by Byju Raveendran in Bangalore. Around 2007, Byju helped some of his friends prepare for the Common Admission Test (CAT), which is the entrance test for India’s best management institutes. He then started conducting CAT preparation workshops on weekends. From a classroom of 40 students, he was soon booking auditoriums for 1,200 students. Soon, Byju replicated this successful model to eight other cities including Chennai, Mumbai, and Pune.
By 2009, some of his best students joined him to scale up the content and the business. In 2011, the company was founded and it started offering the sessions through the video format. In 2014, it launched a tablet learning program for competitive exams and grades 8-12.
In 2015, it launched the BYJU’S learning app and within three months, over 2 million children were using it. BYJU’s creates personalized learning programs for students based on their proficiency levels and capabilities. It generates slick, high quality videos for the K 12 segment that are developed by over 500 people in the Research and Development team.
Today, BYJU’s offers learning programs for class 4-12 and test preparation for competitive exams like JEE, AIPMT, CAT, IAS, GRE, & GMAT. It has over 8 million students on its platform, 400,000 annual paying subscribers, and a 90% renewal rate.
BYJU’S Financials
BYJU’s follows a freemium model. The price for the program for each class starts from Rs 23,000 ($360). The price for competitive exams can vary from Rs 15,000 ($235) to Rs 60,000 ($940). The K 12 vertical accounts for about 90% of the total revenue.
