Backed by General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Naspers, Silver Lake, Tiger Global and other notable investors, BYJU’S, a personalized online learning platform with 100 million students, has announced a $500M acquisition of Epic, a digital reading platform for kids 12 and under.
The acquisition will help expand BYJU’S U.S. footprint by providing access to the more than two million teachers and 50 million kids in Epic’s existing global user-base, which more than doubled over the last year. Suren Markosian, Epic CEO and co-founder Kevin Donahue, will remain in their roles.
Byju Raveendran, Founder and CEO, BYJU’S said, “Our partnership with Epic will enable us to create engaging and interactive reading and learning experiences for children globally. Our mission is to fuel curiosity and make students fall in love with learning. Knowing that Epic and its products are rooted in the same mission, it was a natural fit. Together we have the opportunity to create impactful experiences for children to become life-long learners.”
“We created Epic to make quality books more accessible to kids everywhere, and to build a safe place for them to discover the joy and magic of reading in their own way. The alignment of our missions and shared passion makes BYJU’S the perfect partner, as we’re confident this acquisition will ignite excitement for learning around the world,” said Suren Markosian, CEO and co-founder of Epic. “Together, we can help empower future generations of kids by fostering a lifetime love for reading and learning.”
Anita Kishore, Chief Strategy Officer of BYJU’S said, “Epic’s model for inspiring the next generation through interactive reading is in lockstep with our mission to help millions of children become life-long learners. We welcome Epic’s talented leadership team and employees to the BYJU’S family as we endeavor to help students fall in love with learning across the world.”
Arya has been a part of the Content & Research Team at Hrnxt.com. She is a keen observer of economic developments, emerging businesses, people in business and keeps a tab on latest happenings in the business environment.