Byjus worlds 13th most valuable start-up; ByteDance and SpaceX the only hectocorns – Business Today

Homegrown edtech startupByjus is now the 13th most valuable start-up in the world, as per CB Insights latest unicorn tracker.

The Byju Raveendran-owned decacorn is currently valued at $21 billion, which also makes it the worlds most valuable edtech start-up. Byju's is succeeded by Chinese edtech major Yuanfudao, which has a valuation of $15.5 billion.

The Bengaluru-based start-ups rise has been particularly impressive in the last 20 months, where education went digital-first due to the compulsions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a result, Byju's not only ramped up its user base and saw rapid growth in revenues, it also made a slew of acquisitions world over (8 this year) and raised billions of dollars in venture capital.

According to CB Insights, Byju's has raised funding of over $5.18 billion since its inception in 2015. Of this, $1.3 billion has come in 2021 alone.

The e-learning firm is backed by leading investors such as Tiger Global, General Atlantic, Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Tencent Holdings, Sequoia Capital India, Sofina, Qatar Investment Authority, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Lightspeed Venture Partners, Owl Ventures, among others.

Interestingly, no other Indian start-up features in the list of top 50. A distant second at the 54th position is OYO (valued at $9.4 billion). CB Insights does not consider publicly listed companies as unicorns. Hence, the likes of Paytm, Nykaa, and Zomato (each valued at over $10 billion) dont feature.

Unicorn Map of the World

As of December 2021, there are 936 unicorns (private companies valued at over $1 billion) globally, with a cumulative valuation of $3,049 billion.

The US accounts for 51% of all unicorns in the world, CB Insights stated. China holds second place with an 18.1% share, while India claims the third spot with a 5.4% share after adding a staggering 40 unicorns in 2021. The UK, meanwhile, is home to 4% of the worlds unicorns.

Fintech is the most highly represented category on our list, accounting for slightly over a fifth of all unicorns (20.4%). It is followed by internet software & services (17.8%), e-commerce and direct-to-consumer (10.9%), and Artificial Intelligence (7.8%), CB Insights stated in its report.

TikTok parent ByteDance continues to be the worlds most valuable unicorn at $140 billion, while Elon Musks SpaceX became a hectocorn (companies valued over $100 billion) in 2021. The spacetech giant is now valued at $100.3 billion.

US fintech major Stripe ($95 billion), Swedish e-payments firm Klarna (45.6 billion), and Australia-based design SaaS sensation Canva ($40 billion) make up the remainder of the worlds top 5 most valuable start-ups, as per CB Insights.

Others in the top 10 are Instacart ($39 billion), Databricks ($38 billion), Revolut ($33 billion), Nubank ($30 billion), and Epic Games ($28.7 billion).

Forty-two private companies (4.5% of total unicorns) are considered decacorns, worth $10B+. Meanwhile, 24.6% of companies included in the global unicorn club are valued at exactly $1B, CB Insights stated.

It added, Since September 2021, the unicorn club has grown in size by 11% from 842 to 936 unicorns. At this rate, it is likely to break 1,000 by early 2022.

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Byjus worlds 13th most valuable start-up; ByteDance and SpaceX the only hectocorns - Business Today