Selling part of Byju’s stake may land Sequoia Capital $190m

MUMBAI: Silicon Valley venture capital fund Sequoia Capital is part-selling its stake in online learning app Byju’s for $185-190 million, as part of the company’s latest financing round which valued it at an estimated $3.6 billion.

Sequoia is learnt to be selling around 7% of its shareholding to incoming investors South Africa’s Naspers Ventures and private equity biggie General Atlantic, in what is arguably one of the best returns for the fund in just three years of investment, people familiar with the development said.

“Sequoia has part-sold shares, earlier to GA and then to Naspers at $2-2.5 billion valuation,” a person close to the development said. “They still remain the largest shareholder after the founder who holds 38% stake in the company.”


The VC firm, which has backed startups like OYO Rooms, Zomato and Mu Sigma, had across rounds invested $50 million in Byju’s for 20-22% stake in the Bengaluru-based company, sources said.

Post the secondary share sale, Sequoia will own around 13-15% stake in Byju’s. A secondary sale is when an existing investor sells shares to a new one and the money does not come into the company’s coffers.

An emailed questionnaire sent to Sequoia Capital remained unanswered as of press time on Monday. Earlier in the day, Byju’s said it has raised $540 million in a financing round led by Naspers Ventures with participation of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and GA.

The company did not split the primary and secondary part in the fund raise. ET had first reported about the latest round on its December 12 edition.

It is owned by Think & Learn Private Ltd, the education platform which caters to school students from class four to 12.

“Sequoia registering this kind of a return in a three-year period is a good signal to limited partners who invest in funds,” said a person privy to the transaction.

“Typically they (Sequoia) don’t take the call to sell in a short period, so this is an exception,” the person said.

For Sequoia, which first invested in Byju’s in 2015 when it had pivoted from being a physical coaching platform to an online player, it will be one of the largest distributions clocked from a portfolio company in the past few years.

Byju’s other investors include Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Tencent, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sofina and Verlinvest. Times Internet and BCCL, part of the group which publishes The Economic Times, are both shareholders in the company.