Tencent, Asia’s highest-valued tech company, has continued to invest in India after it backed online education service BYJU’s. The startup that includes the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Sequoia among its investors.
The size of the investment has not been disclosed, but a source close to the deal told TechCrunch that it values BYJU’s around the $800 million mark. Tencent has been less prolific in India than rival Alibaba, but its investments in the country include e-commerce giant Flipkart, healthcare firm Practo and chat app Hike.
Bangalore-based BYJU’s operates a range of online classes in India from students from grades 4-12 — it is named after founder and former teacher Byju Raveendran who started it in 2011. The company claims that it has nine million students using its apps, with 450,000 paying subscribers for the service overall. It said it has turned profitable in the last quarter with annual revenue more than doubling to reach $40 million for the 2016-2017 period.
Its business has attracted the interest of many esteemed investors, including Sequoia, which led a $75 million investment last March. That was quickly followed by