Online tutoring startup Byju’s (Think & Learn Pvt. Ltd) has acquired Osmo, a maker of educational games, for $120 million in its first-ever purchase of a US company. The acquisition will help Byju’s offer learning solutions to children aged between three and eight by tapping into Osmo’s physical-to-digital technology and content.
Byju’s has aggressive plans for the international market and will continue to make big investments in technology to further personalize learning for students, the company said on Wednesday. Byju’s is on target to triple revenue to ₹1,400 crore this year.
Last month, Byju’s raised $540 million at a valuation of $3.6 billion, as robust investor demand swelled the size of its latest funding round and turned Byju Raveendran, the founder of the eponymous startup into an overnight billionaire. That funding round put Byju’s fourth on the list of India’s most valuable startups, after digital payments firm Paytm (One97 Communications Pvt. Ltd), cab-hailing service Ola (ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd) and budget hotel chain Oyo Rooms (Oravel Stays Pvt. Ltd).
The focus at Byju’s has been on creating engaging, immersive content offered through personalized learning experiences for students. Osmo’s use of mixed reality interactions can help it expand its platform to new audiences and applications, the company said.
“Our partnership with Osmo will help kids acquire love for learning at an early age by introducing ‘play-based learning’. Together with Osmo, we have the critical elements needed to build an unprecedented library of engaging and entertaining educational content for a global pre-K-12 student audience,” Raveendran said in a statement.
Byju’s has raised $784 million in total funding so far and has made three acquisitions before Osmo, according to data from Crunchbase.
Launched in 2015, the Byju’s Learning App offers personalized programmes for school students across grades 4-12. It has over two million annual paid subscriptions and 30 million students learning from the app. Palo Alto-based Osmo was founded in 2013 by ex-Google engineers Pramod Sharma and Jerome Scholler.
“We started Osmo for parents looking for a way to combine physical, hands-on play with the power of digital platforms to foster a love of learning,” Osmo co-founder and chief executive Sharma said.
Osmo will continue to scale on a standalone basis after the purchase and its core team, headed by Sharma, will remain at its helm.
Source: Mint