A bright kid from Kerala scoring 100 percent of CAT exams twice for fun was destined to create and lead something as mammoth as BYJU’s.

Byju Raveendran the founder of Byju’s, was an engineer for a UK-based transportation company. While working, he began assisting his friends in completing the CAT test, which is a test to enter IIM. At that time to test himself, he also gave tests and got 100 percentile. Initially, he started taking free math lessons and then started charging a bit when he gained confidence in himself.

At one point in his career, he went on to becoming so famous that for one workshop he had more than 20,000 students. In 2009, he began recording videos of his forums he took. Fast forward to 2011, he launched a company called “Think and Learn” with the help of his friends at IIM, which aimed to change the way students learn. This led to the foundation of an interactive/collaborative learning app called BYJU’s in 2015, and all the rest as they say is history.

Byju’s utilizes the freemium business model, the company asks students for details on their application or website and gives them a free 15-day trial. After the free trial one has to buy courses from Byju’s and that is how the freemium business model is built. The company offers one-of-a-kind training for subscribers and provides feedback to the child’s parents. Byju also offers classroom training in the city of Noida, Gurgaon, and surrounding areas.

Byju’s also gives out an exclusive tablet which customers should buy at the time of choosing the desired course. This tablet contains videos, tests, exercise questions, quizzes, etc. Designed for the subject the customer has chosen.

Byju’s believes that the Indian curriculum is very focused on exams, where one simply learns to pass exams. Real learning according to them includes curiosity, asking questions and finding solutions.

Byju’s understands the fact that some students like to read stories, while others prefer visuals and theories. Byju’s therefore integrates each learning format in one way or another.

Byju’s enjoyed domination in the market alone before the COVID-19 epidemic. However, many of the same players are entering the market when the government puts up doors and restricts access to schools and colleges. This meant that students had to learn everything in their homes, which paved the way for further Ed-tech. Byju’s main competitors  are Unacademy, Meritnation, Vedantu, Teachable etc.

• In 2011 Byju’s officially began functioning as a company,
• 2015– Launches first mobile app,
• 2016– Over 3,00,000 active users received,
• 2017-2018 – Byju’s reported revenue of Rs 490 crore, increased to Rs 1,430 crores during 2018-2019.
• After Tiger Global Management invested $ 200 million. In January 2020, Byju’s was estimated at$ 10.5 billion.

Till now Byju has acquired Vidyartha, Tutor Vista, Edurite. Maths adventures, Osmo(US-based learning app)  and also acquired White Hat Jr. for $300 million for an all-cash deal.

Byju’s brought a very innovative concept and has found great success in the market. It follows a aggressive marketing strategies. Shahrukh Khan, one of Bollywood’s leading actors is a brand ambassador for Byju’s brand. The company also bound Disney to launch its pre-reading curriculum for classes 1-3.

Byju’s was also in the news for good reasons, as it took a really good step during the corona virus disaster. With schools in various parts of India closed due to the corona virus outbreak, Byju’s is offering its free tuition program to students by the end of April 2020, so that students can enjoy undisturbed learning.

The company has so far dominated the Indian market and made its presence in the Middle East. Byju’s now aims to capture markets in the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa and other world markets .

While Byju’s makes students fall in love with learning, it is also learning new ways to grow bigger than it is.