Byju’s on Monday said it had acquired Singapore-headquartered Great Learning for $600 million (about Rs 4,466 crore). The edtech company also added that it would invest an additional $400 million to strengthen its position in the professional and higher education segment. 

The acquisition comes just days after Byju’s had announced the purchase of US-based digital reading platform Epic for $500 million (around Rs 3,729.8 crore) and an additional $1 billion (about Rs 7,459.7 crore) investment in the North American market. 

“The acquisition marks Byju’s strong push into the professional upskilling and life-long learning space globally with a total commitment of $1 billion, expanding its offerings beyond the K-12 and test-prep segments and further accelerating the company’s growth plans,” said Byju’s, which has 100 million registered students on its flagship learning app.  

Great Learning would continue to operate as an independent unit in the Byju’s Group under the leadership of its founder and CEO Mohan Lakhamraju and co-founders Hari Nair and Arjun Nair, added Byju’s. 

“With this substantial investment, Great Learning will accelerate its organic and inorganic growth in India and across global markets and expand its high-quality, transformational offerings to learners everywhere,” it noted. 

The partnership brings together Byju’s technology and content expertise with Great Learning’s professional courses at a significant time when the COVID-19 pandemic and evolving industry dynamics have encouraged professionals in India and globally to upskill themselves. 

Founded in 2013, Great learning, a boot-strapped company, has delivered over 60 million hours of learning to 1.5 million learners from over 170 countries. Great Learning and its teams are based out of Singapore, the US and India. 

It leverages a curated network of over 2,800 industry expert mentors and has collaborated with universities globally, including Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), McCombs School of Business, University of Texas in Austin and others, to offer degrees, diplomas and certificate programmes.