On July 21, 2021, the global leader in personalized online learning, BYJU’s (backed by General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Naspers, Silver Lake, Tiger Global, and other notable investors), announced a $500 million acquisition of Epic, the world’s leading digital reading platform for kids 12 and under. The acquisition will help expand BYJU’S U.S. footprint by providing access to the more than two million teachers and 50 million kids in Epic’s existing global user base, which more than doubled over the last year. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati represented Epic in the transaction.
Epic will become the third major business for BYJU’S in the U.S. It offers live one-on-one online tutoring in math and coding via BYJU’s Future School, and two years ago it bought augmented reality games creator Osmo. Each of the three arms is set to bring in about $100 million in revenue this year, said Byju Raveendran, founder and chief executive officer of BYJU’S. The expansion will “hugely accelerate” the company’s revenue in the year ending in March 2022, he said, adding that BYJU’s plans to make a projection in a few months. Its plans for the U.S. and other regions are aggressive, Raveendran said.
The Wilson Sonsini team that represented Epic in the transaction includes:
M&A
Melissa Hollatz
Jackie Hamilton
Dennise Martinez
Elia Perez Villamarin
Corporate
Allison Spinner
Lauren Lichtblau
Technology Transactions
John McGaraghan
Regulatory
Anne Seymour
Privacy
Matt Staples
Daniel Chen
Employment Litigation
Briza Sanchez
Alex Katsnelson
Corporate – Delaware
Adrian Broderick
Sara Pollock
EB&C
Michelle Wallin
Michael Klippert
For more information, please see the press release from BYJU’S. Further coverage can be found at Bloomberg, Tech Crunch, and Venture Beat.