Byju's is getting ready to list Aakash, an old-world test prep brand it acquired in 2021 and which has emerged as the silver lining for the $22-billion valued edtech major, which has been battling odds on multiple fronts
An initial public offering (IPO) is always an option for any privately held company that has raised loads of venture capital. But for Byju’s—it was born offline in 2011, gradually morphed into an edtech company, and rolled out its app in 2015—getting listed seemed a logical progression when it entered the unicorn club, after being valued at $1.02 billion in July 2017. The IPO talk only gathered steam with every subsequent funding round and steep valuation surges: $3.37 billion in September 2018, $5.47 billion in March 2019, $8.24 billion in January 2020, $11 billion in June 2020, and $16.09 billion in March 2021.