Byju’s Inks ties up with QIA to form MENA-focused subsidiary in Doha

The platform also plans to build a research and development center in Doha to create learning materials and products in Arabic as part of the deal.

The announcement comes after Byju’s was named as the sponsor of the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

Byju’s Founder and CEO Byju Raveendran and QIA CEO Mansour Al-Mahmoud signed the MoU in the presence of Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar and President of QIA. As well as Byju’s representatives at the 2022 Doha Forum, held on Saturday and Sunday.

“As we witness rapid growth in the Indian and international markets, we are excited to partner with QIA in this next phase of expanding, developing and creating new innovations in learning in the MENA region. Life for our learners. With a relentless focus on creating value throughout, this partnership with QIA is an important step in realizing our vision,” said Raveendran.

“QIA is proud to have helped enable the development of innovative education technology platforms in the MENA region to inspire children to learn. QIA has a strong focus on investing in leading innovators globally and we are committed to creating new technologies that enable the development of innovative learning technologies. We want to help build a community that has a positive impact on society,” Mansour al-Mahmoud said.

The announcement is a major push for the edtech firm to expand into global markets beyond the US ahead of its proposed IPO.

Interestingly, QIA came as an investor in Byju’s in 2019, when it led its $150 million round.

QIA was established in 2005 to invest and manage the State Reserve Funds. It is one of the largest and most active sovereign wealth funds globally.

on March 11, Byju Raveendran made private investment $400 million (approx.) 3,060 million out of a total of $800 million (approx. 6,100 crore) latest round of funding in edtech firm.

This is believed to have raised its valuation to around $22 billion.

In October 2021edtech decacorn raised approximately $300 million in its Series F round of funding led by Oxshot Capital Partners.

In June, Byju’s raised $1.5 billion from UBS Group, Abu Dhabi Sovereign Fund ADQ, and Blackstone Group at a valuation of $16.5 billion, up from April’s fundraising of approximately $15 billion.

Byju’s became a unicorn in 2018 (start-up with a valuation of $1 billion and above), consolidating its presence, its acquisition strategy this year to foray into new edtech categories of upskilling, test prep and higher education accelerating. In major international geographies, including the US.

Byju said in February it will invest Up to $200 million for the operation and expansion of Byju’s Tuition Center over the next 12 to 18 months, Byju’s Chief Operating Officer, Mrinal Mohit, told VC Circle in a virtual interaction.

The company expects to enroll one million students in the program over the next two years and will launch 500 such learning centers in 200 cities this year.

Byju’s is expected to create more than 10,000 jobs across the country with the Tuition Center of Byju’s.

Byju’s offline and hybrid launch follows Aakash Educational Services’ plan to add more physical centers in 2022. VCircle recently reported that the company plans to add at least 75 more centers this year.

Aakash also claimed that it has not left any of its physical centers since 2020, when the first lockdown was announced after the outbreak of Covid-19.

Over the past months, the company has also strengthened its senior leadership team with the appointment of two new Vice Presidents (VPs) in Engineering as well as Reliability, Security and Cloud Engineering.

In December 2021, Byju’s announced the appointment of Rachna Bahadur as Senior Vice President to lead its global expansion plans.