Byju Raveendran

Introduction

Byju Raveendran is a well-known Indian businessman who rose to prominence due to his innovative teaching style and software knowledge. He is a multibillionaire who has taught millions of people how to pass various entrance tests. The app he designed is known as Byju's, and it is one of the most successful tech apps.

The app has more than 33 million users, with more than 2.2 million paying customers. Raveendran's 'BYJU's' is the most valuable startup in India. The app has grown so well-known that Harvard Business School is using it as a case study. Owing to its simplicity and efficacy, the app has won numerous honors.

Background and Career

Byju Raveendran, after graduating from the Government College of Engineering in Kannur, entered the service engineering field. Raveendran decided to begin tutoring his friends to get them through the CAT exam. After developing an excellent teaching strategy, he started instructing more students. He would assist pupils in getting ready for entrance examinations such as the Common Entrance exam (CAT).

Raveendran took the CAT exam himself in 2003 and received a perfect score even though he didn't prepare enough. After assisting a few others in passing the CAT two years later, he decided to become a full-time teacher. From tutoring a small group of friends, Raveendran expanded to teach hundreds of students in spacious auditoriums via satellite transmission.

Raveendran decided to give students a seven-day free trial and only charge them if they were happy with the caliber of instruction. He soon rented a classroom to suit the growing number of students, but it wasn't long-lived because the enrollment was rising at an unforeseen rate.

Raveendran's entrepreneurial career was spot on since success was snatching his hands and licking his feet when he began teaching in auditoriums. His students quickly grew to 20,000 across the nation, and he was often on the road, lecturing on over seven occasions in a single week. He recorded his lectures and sent them to locations he couldn't make it to because he was finding it harder and harder to manage the demanding schedule. Before long, his seminars were available in over 25 cities.

In 2007, Raveendran quit his job to create Byju's Classes after realizing that teaching was his true passion. He and his spouse launched Byju's in 2011. Raveendran released his app in India in 2015, and three years later, it was available in the US and UK. Raveendran's initial Byju's operates on a subscription basis and prepares students for both foreign and Indian exams, including the GRE and GMAT, as well as exams like IIT-JEE, NEET, CAT, and IAS.

Byju, who was nurtured in a small coastal town in Kerala, credits athletics for teaching him valuable lessons about leadership, cooperation, and performing under pressure. Another lesson from the field is that the CEO of BYJU was a committed academic and a strong proponent of "self-learning" despite his strong interest in physical education. He credits this early education for helping shape BYJU's into what it is today.

Making Education Personalized, Engaging, and Fun

At BYJU, students have always been at the forefront of innovation. After just three months of release, the app had two million downloads, which revolutionized both teacher and student instruction. Using an all-encompassing approach to education, the app uses animated films, games, quizzes, and more to make learning fun, interactive, adaptable, and individualized. Currently, the app has over 100 million downloads, 6.5 million paying users, and an 86% yearly renewal rate.

Every product created by BYJU, which celebrates all types of learners, is built to enable students to access high-quality teachers and content from any location and foster a community of engaged self-learners. Students can gain a conceptual and contextual grasp of a variety of disciplines through these learning systems, enabling them to comprehend not just the "What" of learning but also the "Why" and "How" of it.

Raveendran's 'BYJU'S' was the first Asian business to be funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative in 2016. Since then, it has welcomed powerful and well-known investors into its endeavor to redefine education. The investors comprise the following: Aarin Capital, Tiger Global, Owl Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Times Internet, CPPIB, Naspers, General Atlantic, Tencent, Sequoia Capital, Sofina, Verlinvest, IFC, Bond, Silver Lake, BlackRock, and Sands Capital Management.

Building Partnerships to Create Value

As the CEO and owner of BYJU, Byju Raveendran's common goals are key to sustaining the organization's positive effects on students' lives and generating wealth. While using cutting-edge technology to help kids transition from passive to active learners has always been at the heart of his vision for the company, BYJU's started its journey to shape young minds and help them fall in love with learning with the release of Disney.

For $120 million, Byju's purchased Osmo, a US-based company that creates educational games, on January 19, 2019. It was their very first acquisition of a US company. BYJU'S and Osmo created the educational games and partnered in 2019 to provide learning resources for kids aged three to eight. It strives to create an immersive, personalized, and engaging student learning experience by utilizing physical-to-digital technology and information.

Osmo games not only impart traditional knowledge but also develop social-emotional abilities like perseverance, creativity, and problem-solving. Osmo's computer vision technology was incorporated by BYJU'S into the product for LKG, UKG, and Classes 1-3 (India and US).

The Pandemic Factor and Social Initiatives

The COVID-19 epidemic that began in 2020 sparked a quick uptake of digital learning technologies and marked a turning point for the tech industry. It significantly altered the way parents thought about online education. Being a digital-first business, BYJU'S rapidly changed course and introduced several solutions to meet children's learning needs during difficult times like these.

To enable kids throughout the nation to continue their education without interruption, the Learning app's content was first made available for free. It also expedited the start of LIVE lessons and developed BYJU'S lessons, an online tutoring program, to give students structured learning. Nearly 50 million additional students have learned using BYJU'S app due to the availability of learning courses in multiple regional languages.

2020 saw the beginning of the social initiative "Education for All," which aims to democratize education as part of the company's ongoing efforts and the owner's vision of providing high-quality education to everyone. By 2025, this program hopes to empower 5 million kids from the most isolated areas and neglected neighborhoods.

Terrace to a Classroom to an Auditorium

To produce educational content for students, Byju founded his education technology company as the number of students increased. With the assistance of some of his recent IIM graduates, the company's tagline is "fall in love with learning."

Byju relocated his students into a classroom from the terrace. He had just Rs 2 lakh when he began his coaching program. In 2009, Byju launched an online video-based study program for CAT, marking the initial instance of Byju's utilizing technology in the classroom.

Byju Raveendran once had over 20,000 pupils spread throughout several states, including Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, and others, due to the popularity of his coaching style.

Think and Learn

Even in cases where everything is going well, there is always an opportunity for improvement since, otherwise, the point of saturation would be approaching. An entrepreneur needs to expand and take advantage of every opportunity. The concept of streaming Byju's classes online to make his high-caliber instruction available to millions of students was first put forth in 2010.

The notion to produce the best instructional materials for students nationwide was put out by certain IIM grads. Even though it was not widely available in India at the time, Byju decided to go ahead and establish "Think and Learn Pvt. Ltd."

A Big Leap

The young company developed an app dubbed "BYJU's- The Learning App," which was well-received by parents and students alike when it was released in 2015. The app has over 2.5 lakh paying members and over 5.5 million downloads in the first three months after its release. However, initial issues always needed to be resolved with consistent observation and advancements.

The encouraging thing about Byju is that he persevered, maintained his moral principles, and put in a lot of effort even when rivals were actively dismantling his technology-based teaching paradigm. His software quickly gained popularity nationwide as everyone-regardless of whether they were regular coaching students or remote learners-loved the concept of creative learning and used it as their first choice.

His firm was the first in Asia to get funding from Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's organization. His company signed Shahrukh Khan as a brand ambassador and became the official sponsor of the Indian Cricket Team's jersey in 2019. In 2017, the company was included as a case study at Harvard University, which was another international accomplishment.

Byju Raveendran's Achievements

• Byju received numerous honors, such as the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 India and Fast 500, the Big Research NDTV Profit Business & Service Excellence Award, and the CNBC-TV 18 Crisil Emerging India Award in Education.
• In 2017, Byju's App was one of the case studies that Harvard University used.
• In 2019, Byju's net worth increased to $6.5 billion.
• In 2019, the educational mobile app was downloaded over 12 million times from the Android Play Store and has over 40 million registered users.
• Byju Raveendran wants to develop a potent teaching tool that will boost learning efficiency and reach markets in South Africa, the US, the UK, and the Commonwealth.

Byju's wealth has increased in tandem with the market. In the year in March 2020, its revenues were more than doubled to ₹3,000 crore ($435 million), according to Raveendran. Some of the largest investors in the sector, including Sequoia Capital, Tencent Holdings Ltd., Naspers Ventures, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, have already expressed interest in the company due to its rapid expansion.

Mohandas and Ranjan Pai invested Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) in Byju's Classes. This was the first investment in 2015. Byju is the only Asian startup backed by Mark Zuckerberg. Byju got $50 million from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), a philanthropic organization founded by Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, and his wife, Dr. Priscilla, as well as Times Internet Ltd, Lightspeed Ventures, and Sofina, in September 2016.

Byju's revenue climbed 48 crores in 2014-15 and Rs. 120 crores in 2015-16 as it became an educational learning app. In the fiscal year 2016-17, this figure grew to Rs 260 crores. Byju has expertise with over 700 high-quality product development teams, 200 content creators who create quality material, and 150 creative media teams.

Byju possesses a straightforward strategy for engaging children: adapting the information to their brief attention spans. Intending to break through to English-speaking nations, Raveendran has always flown in YouTube stars to appear in his videos.

Conclusion

Though Byju Raveendran's roles have evolved from being an excellent student to an outstanding teacher, his life has always revolved around his studies. As a student, teacher, and sports lover who has incorporated technology into the classroom, Byju has raised the topic of educational reform in a nation that is moving toward a policy of "Digital India." His teachings and style of life are incredibly motivating for anyone who wants to succeed.