BYJU’S, the world’s leading EdTech company and creator of India’s most loved learning app, has acquired Gradeup, one of India’s largest online exam preparation platforms.
The partnership will bolster BYJU’S presence in the fast-growing online competitive examination preparation category along with harnessing Gradeup’s pedagogy and student reach, said a press statement.
Following the acquisition, Gradeup has been rebranded as BYJU’S Exam Prep and the platform will now cater to students preparing for 150+ exams over 25 exam categories covering Government Jobs and PG Entrance Exams such as IAS, GATE, CAT, Bank PO/Clerk, Defence, UGC-NET, etc.
Gradeup is one of India’s leading competitive exam preparation platforms. Established in 2015, it has helped over 25 million students prepare for various exams. Gradeup offers high-quality comprehensive courses to students preparing for GATE, Bank PO/Clerk, Railways, Teaching, IAS, Defense, UGC-NET, and State level exams. These courses are offered through a combination of live classes with top faculties, study material, practice tests, and assessments.
Speaking about the acquisition, Byju Raveendran, Founder & CEO, BYJU’S, said,
“Our focus has always been on ensuring that every learner has access to the highest quality of teachers and content to help them learn better. With Gradeup on board, we will be able to further scale and expand our test-prep offerings in postgraduate level exams. Gradeup has already proved its mettle and we are excited to join forces with the seasoned team. We aim to bring our complementary strengths and expertise together to create engaging and personalized learning experiences.”
Launched its flagship product, BYJU’S – The Learning App, for classes 4-12 in 2015, BYJU’S app today has over 100 million registered students and 6.5 million annual paid subscriptions. With Aakash Educational Services Ltd. already being a part of BYJU’S since April 2021, offering its highly effective learning ecosystem, Gradeup coming on board will help BYJU’S scale up in the test preparation segment further.
Shobhit Bhatnagar, CEO, Gradeup, said,
“By combining live classes, assessments, and quality study material, we have built a highly specialized offering for students preparing for competitive exams. Together with BYJU’S, we will accelerate our growth and expand our reach across the country. Further, we will leverage their strengths in content to deepen our current product offering and broaden our coverage of exams.”
BYJU’S has been on an acquisition spree since 2019. In early 2019, the Bengaluru-based EdTech giant acquired Osmo, a Palo Alto-based maker of educational games to transform the whole offline to the online learning experience. BYJU’S also acquired WhiteHat Jr in 2020, a Mumbai-based programming startup focused on empowering children with coding skills. In 2021, the company acquired one of the most trusted test-prep service providers in India – Aakash Educational Services Limited (ASEL), doubt-clearing platform Scholr, digital reading platform for kids Epic, after-school learning app Toppr, upskilling platform Great Learning, and augmented reality startup Whodat among others.
Taking the vision of creating active learners around the world and expanding globally, BYJU’S also launched BYJU’S Future School recently. With an average time of 71 minutes being spent by a student on the app every day from 1700+ cities, BYJU’S app is creating a whole new way of learning through visual lessons.