Bengaluru, July 30: A former classroom teacher belonging from Kerala, Byju Raveendran is India's newest billionaire after his education app BYJU's valuation touched almost six billion dollars in about seven years. Raveendran's Think & Learn Pvt, which owns BYJU's app, received funding of $150 million by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) earlier this month. Byju's to Replace Oppo on Team India Jerseys Post India’s Tour of West Indies 2019.

The funding took Bengaluru-based education company's valuation to $5.7 billion in which Raveendran, also the Chief Execution Officer of the firm, owns 21 per cent. Following effective brand awareness and strong adoption by students, BYJU's revenue tripled to Rs 1,430 in 2018-19 and also turned profitable.

The fresh round of funding in the ed-tech also included the first-ever investment from Owl Ventures in an Indian startup. "Indian ed-tech firms attracting interest from eminent investors demonstrates that India is pioneering the digital learning space globally," Raveendran had said earlier.

Who is Byju Raveendran?

Byju Raveendran, from Kerala's Azhikode, was an engineer with a United Kingdom-based shipping company when he began assisting few friends to crack IIM entrance test. Interestingly, he himself had scored 100 percentile but didn't join any of the IIMs.

In no time, Raveendran became a full-time teacher. Starting with a small group of students, he started teaching in auditoriums and stadiums, through satellite communications- VSAT. He eventually launched Byju’s – The Learning App in 2015. And now, the education technology is India's largest edutech company with the aim of expanding to the US, UK, South Africa and other countries.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 30, 2019 04:39 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).