EdTech in India is on fire! 🔥

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Jul 14 2020

EdTech in India is on fire! 🔥

#122:

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During these times of Covid-19, one thing that is boiling, is the EdTech sector!
Companies are getting acquired, investments are being made, BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is coined as a term within school kids and their teachers!
So much so, that Edtech startups account for 20% of the VC investments in 2020! Oh, man, clearly no VC is singing "We don't need no education" right now!
I'll just list down the big investments which happened in the last few months but trust me, there were notable small ones too!

Reliance invested $78M in Embibe (Reliance is everywhere, just saying)
Byju's raised capital at $10B
Byju's in talks to buy Doubtnut for $125M
Byju's to acquire WhiteHat Jr for $300 million

ज्ञान

🏦 A Look at SoftBank Vision Fund I

On May 18th, 2020, SoftBank announced that it recorded losses of more than $17 Bn in the Vision Fund for the fiscal year that ended on March 31st, representing one of the largest write-downs in private equity fund history. An incredible 47 investments, representing 64% of the portfolio, were written down. The SoftBank Group (TopCo) in itself suffered a net loss of $9 Bn due to poor performance of the fund, the first quarterly loss in the company’s 14-year history.

While a certain portion of the losses can be attributed to the ongoing pandemic; most of it cannot. Masa Son’s ambitions, the Vision Fund’s capital structure, poor governance and the inexperience of the investment team are contributing factors to the current situation in some way or another.

📈 Stripe Teardown: How The $35B Payments Company Plans To Supercharge Online Retail

Today, less than 8% of global commerce happens online. Stripe is intent on growing that number.

As businesses and consumers become more comfortable using credit cards online, the proportion of US commerce that takes place online has steadily increased over the last 20 years.

This growth has created major opportunities in the payments space, and companies like Stripe — the payments unicorn valued at a masive $35B — are hungry to capitalize on them.

💰Most significant technology acquisitions 2019

In 2018 there was some major M&A activity in the IT industry, topped by IBM's acquisition of Red Hat for a staggering $33 billion and Broadcom buying CA Technologies for $18.9 billion in cash.

According to Deloitte's annual study of M&A activity (pdf), 73 percent of tech sector executives expect even bigger deals this year - the highest percentage of any industry - but their acquisition strategies look likely to change.

"Based on the latest survey results, there may be a pivot away from purchasing a company simply for its technology ... Instead, in the next 12 months, corporate respondents note an increased focus on buying a company in order to expand," the report read.

Here are the most notable tech acquisitions of 2019 so far.

🤵 Bezos Takes Back the Wheel at Amazon

The chief executive, who had distanced himself from day-to-day management, is closely involved in the company’s response to the pandemic.
SEATTLE — At the end of February, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, and his girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez, were in France discussing climate change with President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace and celebrating atop the Eiffel Tower with the designer Diane von Furstenberg. Days later, paparazzi spotted the couple grabbing dinner at Carbone in New York.

By late March, he had decamped to his ranch in West Texas, focusing on Amazon as the coronavirus pandemic spread across the United States.

Elsewhere

Startup classifieds, events and more..

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