#BUSSINESS:
During the first nine months of 2021, the ed-tech sector saw mergers and acquisitions worth more than $3.35 billion, more than three times the consolidated amounts raised in the last two years — $416 million in 2020 and $783 million in 2019.
A pandemic-induced boom in the education-linked ed-tech sector has spurred a scramble for deals among the top players, amid record fund flows.
During the first nine months of 2021, the ed-tech sector saw mergers and acquisitions worth more than $3.35 billion, more than three times the consolidated amounts raised in the last two years — $416 million in 2020 and $783 million in 2019.
Similarly, PE-VC fundraises by ed-tech firms totalled $3.77 billion in the first nine months of 2021, far exceeding the cumulative $2.22 billion and $968 million raised in 2020 and 2019 respectively, data provided by Venture Intelligence showed.
Much of this funding activity is concentrated at the top, with larger companies like Byju’s cornering a major chunk of the M&A activity.
While in India, the fundraising amount for 2021 by the ed-tech sector is way above last year’s amount, the overall global scenario has been comparatively slower on this front.
According to CB Insights data, ed-tech companies across the world raised $8.27 billion till September 24 this year, and are expected to raise a total of $11.03 billion by the end of this year, compared with $12.63 billion raised last year. Most of this fundraising activity has come from early-stage start-ups, as seed, angel and Series A deals.
Almost half of the amount raised by ed-tech in 2021 so far, was cornered by Byju’s. The company has raised over $1.5 billion this year. In 2021 alone, Byju’s, which is valued at $18 billion, was involved in four out of the five biggest M&A deals in the ed-tech sector. This includes the January 2021 acquisition of Aakash Educational Services for $1 billion. In July, the company acquired Singapore-headquartered Great Learning for $600 million and US ed-tech start-up Epic for $500 million as part of its overseas expansion plans. Last month, it acquired California-headquartered code learning platform Tynker for $200 million.
