Tech: Why Chan Zuckerberg Initiative provided funds to BYJU

Raveendran Byju's app is the first Indian one to be funded by Facebook

Who would have thought that an education app would be India's first major breakthrough app? Turns out, Raveendran Byju, founder of Byju - an education app with over 30 million lessons already down its pocket - hedged his bets right. When on September 8, Mark Zuckerberg announced that his new Chan Zuckerberg Initiative would be investing $50 million in Byju, Indian netizens hailed his achievement. After all, here was a Malayalam-medium schoolboy from a village called Azhikode, Kerela making his way into the big leagues.

Mark and Priscilla Chan's new initiative has funded Byju. Pic/AFP

Byju claims that since its launch in 2015, students are 'addicted' to learning and are spending an average of 40 minutes per day on the app. Byju, who prefers to be called by his app-namesake, rejoices, "It's very humbling to see such confidence from our investors. In fact to be the first company to be backed by Mark Zukerberg and Priscilla Chan is very encouraging. Our vision closely aligns with their vision of advancing human potential and promoting equality."

What does it offer
In an education-obsessed country, Byju offers highly adaptive, engaging and effective learning programs for students between classes 4-12 along with competitive exams like JEE, NEET, CAT, IAS, GRE and GMAT.

Explaining the difference between Byju from other apps, its founder says, "The key difference is that we target end-users and help them become better users. We create systems that are fun. And what makes this possible is the unique combination of content media and technology, making learning effective and engaging."

Growth spurt
With over 5.5 million downloads, 2.5 lakh annual paid subscriptions (with a renewal rate of 95 per cent) that sees an addition of 30,000 students every month, Byju is fast multiplying. "Online learning is not just offline learning taken online by simply digitizing content; technology has to be used to make learning more effective by personalising it to tailor a student's needs," Byju says.

In a city like Mumbai, where universities and government schools are perpetually in a financial crunch, does digitising the education sector revolutionize education? Byju says, "With the right investment and technology, we can shape the way India learns."

With the influx of Rs 332 crore that Byju now has access to, he plans to take his app international and launch it in more English-speaking countries like the United States and The United Kingdom.

"Our focus would be to expand globally without compromising on the quality."