Byju's acquisition of White Hat Jr comes in line with NEP's decision to teach coding in schools

Leading ed-tech firm BYJU'S on Wednesday announced that it has acquired Mumbai-based live online coding provider WhiteHat Jr. The all-cash deal is worth $300 million (roughly Rs 2,246 crore).

After the acquisition, BYJU'S will make significant investments in WhiteHat Jr.'s technology platform, product innovation while expanding the teacher base to cater to the demand from the new markets, the company said in a statement.

WhiteHat Jr. Founder and former Discovery Networks India CEO Karan Bajaj will continue to lead and scale the business in India and the US.

"WhiteHat Jr is the leader in the live online coding space. Under his (Bajaj) leadership, the company has achieved phenomenal growth in India and the US in a short span of time," said Byju Raveendran, Founder and CEO, BYJU'S.

Whitehat Jr is India's second largest ed-tech company at a revenue run rate of $150 million.

The acquisition will also accelerate BYJU'S US expansion plans.

"We started WhiteHat Jr. to make kids creators instead of consumers of technology," said Bajaj.

"Technology is at the centre of every human interaction today and we had set out to create a coding curriculum that was being delivered live and connected students and teachers like never before," he added.

WhiteHat Jr had recently announced their plans to expand to other global markets like Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand after a stellar growth in the US for its one-to-one online coding classes.

After launching their courses in the US in February, the company is growing at more than 100 per cent (month-on-month) in the country.

Founded in November 2018, WhiteHat Jr. helps kids aged 6 to 14 years build commercial-ready games, animations and apps online using the fundamentals of coding.

"WhiteHat Jr.'s coding product capabilities, combined with our pedagogy, expertise and scale, will help expand our learning offerings for school students," said Byju.

With 64 million students cumulatively learning from the app, 4.2 million annual paid subscriptions and an annual renewal rate of 85 per cent, BYJU'S has witnessed phenomenal growth in the country.

BYJU'S doubled its revenue from Rs 1,430 crore to Rs 2,800 crore in FY19-20.

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