Will Byju's White Hat Jr acquisition bolster its US expansion plans?

Imparting computer education to young school children in India is undergoing tremendous transformation. No more are schools restricting themselves to teaching age-old computer programs but are also initiating the children on how to code. There are children who also code for fun as a hobby. And Mumbai-based ed-tech startup White Hat Jr. was a popular choice among children who learnt how to code on their own.

WhiteHat offers one-on-one classes with an expert and also offers classes to kids ages 6-14. It offers four levels of courses – Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Professional – for students in grades 1-9. The startup claims to have a revenue run rate of $150 million.

Now, India's ed-tech unicorn Byju’s, on Wednesday, acquired WhiteHat Jr. for $300 million - making this the company’s largest acquisition to date. It was just recently that Byju’s also secured an investment of $400 million from DST Global. Securing this investment and making this White Hat Jr. acquisition is what analysts believe in Byju’s accelerating its US expansion plans.

This deal comes after WhiteHat announced plans to expand into global markets. The company had grown over 100% month-on-month in the US this year since February.

Byju’s would be making significant investments into WhiteHat Jr’s tech platform, product innovation as well as expanding its teacher base to cater to demand from new markets. WhiteHat Jr’s Founder Karan Bajaj will continue to lead the platform.

Bajaj was quoted saying, “Technology is at the center of every human interaction today. And we had set out to create a coding curriculum that was being delivered live. It connected students and teachers like never before. So, integration with a visionary company such as Byju's will help take this idea to new heights. It will help unleash the remarkable creative potential of kids on a global scale.”

Byju’s co-founder and CEO, Byju Raveendran believes "White Hat Jr is the leader in the live online coding space. Karan has proven his mettle as an exceptional founder and the credit goes to him and his team for creating coding programs that are loved by kids. Under his leadership, the company has achieved phenomenal growth in India and the US in a short span of time."

And this statement by Raveendran indicates that his ed-tech company is going to make a strong in-roads into the US markets.