Online education platform Byju’s has acquired Mumbai-based education technology (edtech) start-up WhiteHat Jr in an all-cash deal worth $300 million. The acquisition marks Byju’s entry into the fast-growing computer code training segment targeted at high school and college students.
This is BYJU’s fifth acquisition and is also its largest acquisition to date. It had last acquired Osmo, a maker of educational games, for $120 million in its first-ever purchase of a US company in January, 2019.
WhiteHat Jr. is a coding platform that looks to equip students with computer coding skills and is largely aimed at pupils from classes 9-12. Founded in November 2018, the edtech startup helps kids aged 6 to 14 years build commercial-ready games, animations, and apps online using the fundamentals of coding. It offers four levels of courses including beginner, intermediate, advanced, and professional.
WhiteHat Jr had recently announced their plans to expand to other global markets like Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand and already has a presence in the US market since February 2020.
With coding fast emerging as a key skill for the future, the acquisition will help BYJU’S further expand its course offerings in India targeted at school students. After the acquisition, BYJU’S plans to further invest more money into WhiteHat Jr’s technology platform, product innovation while expanding the teacher base to cater to demand from new markets, according to a company statement on Wednesday.
“Empowering children with the right future skills has always been part of our vision at BYJU’S and coding fits well into this. WhiteHat Jr’s coding product capabilities, combined with our pedagogy, expertise and scale, will help expand our learning offerings for school students,” added Byju Raveendran, chief executive, BYJU’S.
