BYJU’S Acquired US-Based Startup EPIC For $500 Million
Bengaluru-based edTech unicorn BYJU’S has acquired US-based startup Epic for $500 million. The Epic is a well known digital reading platform for kids aged 12. The company affirmed this merging would help extend BYJU’S in the US by providing access to over two million teachers and 50 million children from Epic’s existing global user base.
The Epic company has seen explosive growth during the pandemic as the public reading libraries, school libraries, and spots have remained shut.
Chief Strategy Officer Anitha Kishore at BYJU’S, said in an interview that the company is now looking to create a $300 million revenue from the US market within the coming year. In the same way, The edTech giant is also waiting to conceive $1 billion in North America to focus on accelerating its growth within the region.
Co-founders of Epic Suren Markosian and Kevin Donahue will stick to their roles and continue completing Epic’s mission to unlock the chance of each child through reading.
Why BYJU’s acquired US-based startup Epic?
Anitha said that the team had been connected with the founders and also tracking the company for five years.
Anitha added that “We have observed the products which different age groups concentrate on learning by playing or learning by watching”. Epic concentrates on learning by reading. They believe it is a lifelong skill Epic’s model. It is helpful for uplifting subsequent generations through interactive reading. It is in lockstep with its mission to assist many children in becoming life-long learners, and she said this.
Byju Raveendran, Founder and CEO of BYJU’S, speaking of the acquisition, said in a press note that “BYJU’S partnership with Epic will empower them. It will make interactive and engaging reading and learning experiences for kids everywhere. Our mission is to attract and make students fall in love with learning. Knowing that Epic and its products were rooting in the same mission, this was an easy fit. Together, we felt that this was a chance to do impactful practices for kids to become life-long learners.”
What will it do?
Since its foundation, Epic’s vision was to fill the gap between the book and the child. During the conversation with the interviewer, the founder Kevin Donahue shares that the thought of starting Epic came from a pain point of wanting their children to read more. He says that as reading is key to learning, they felt that if children can read, they will learn anything.
Kevin said that there was no company to create a digital reading platform for kids at that time. Suren pointed out that it had been easy for kids to look at a video or play a game online. But nothing that allowed children to read a book with the same expertise.
Concentrated on original content, Epic has over 40,000 books and over 300 publishers on the platform. Last year alone, on the brink of one billion books were read on Epic.
Adding to the present, Suren said during a conversation with the interviewer, “Our platform enables any child to get any book that supports their interest and their age. We have concentrated on quality content and books which made learning more engaging and fun. The idea is to urge children to fall crazy with reading. Children are now actively asking to read Epic.”
He also added that Epic is currently one of the essential digital reading services for kids and is helpful in almost every school within the US.
Why Acquisition Was Implemented?
The founders of Epic joined Anitha and Byju to check out a possible partnership and realized that both had spoken an equivalent language. Both the companies understood the importance of education and thought that they could do tons more together. While Epic is US-based, it solves a drag by reaching children anywhere within the world. Suren added that they would help empower the next generations by developing a lifetime love for reading and learning.
Suren explains that it was a big and tough decision for both him and Kevin. While multiple companies approached the team last year, the duo felt BYJU’S was the best fit. They were passionate about the problem, and the company had a significant effect.
“We have big universal goals, so we can felt this was the fastest approach to bringing products to market widely. We realized by combining forces, we will accelerate our international growth,” said Suren.
The team believes that reading fluency is prime for tutorial development. Because problems with this skill can interfere with a student’s skills to find other subjects, they create their way through later grades.
Kevin added that, “We felt comfortable with Byju and Anitha in their terms of vision and culture, and presentation at learning from a common perspective. We realized it had been a chance to require this to the subsequent level and the way complimentary the two companies are, in terms of product.” He explained it also is an excellent opportunity for BYJU’S to urge into the US and build a worldwide learning brand across international territories.
