BYJU’s has purchased Epic, a digital reading platform for children located in Redwood City, California, for $500 million, continuing its aggressive inorganic expansion strategy (Rs 3,730 crore per current exchange rates). The edtech company with headquarters in Bengaluru has set aside up to $1 billion for expansion in the North American market.
Suren Markosian, a serial entrepreneur, and Kevin Donahue, a former Google employee, established Epic in 2013.
On its platform, the digital reading platform has over 40,000 books and videos from over 250 publishers aimed at children under the age of 12.
The platform will be operated by the co-founders following the acquisition, according to a statement released by BYJU on Wednesday.
According to the announcement, BYJU’s two million instructors would have access to 50 million students who are part of Epic’s worldwide user base as a result of the transaction.
“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,” Epic CEO Suren Markosian said in the statement.
In June, BYJU’s, which is run by Think & Learn Pvt Ltd, was valued at $16.5 billion following a $340 million funding round headed by Abu Dhabi’s state-owned firm ADQ (formerly known as Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company). The firm, which began by providing live learning and online examinations to K-12 pupils, has since made a number of acquisitions to expand inorganically across industries.
