India’s most valued ed-tech firm BYJU’S announced that it has acquired Mumbai-based ed-tech start-up, WhiteHat Jr in a $300-million cash deal.

Founded in November 2018, WhiteHat Jr. helps kids aged 6 to 14 years build commercial-ready games, animations and apps online using the fundamentals of coding. WhiteHat Jr offers four levels of courses – Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and Professional – for students in grades 1-9. Kids create complex games, animations and apps using logic, structure, sequence, commands and algorithmic thinking—in a live 1:1 online classroom. Early graduates of the course have created professional-ready apps downloadable on the App Store at ages as young as seven years old.

After the acquisition, BYJU’S will make significant investments in WhiteHat Jr’s technology platform, product innovation while expanding the teacher base to cater to demand from new markets. WhiteHat Jr. Founder, Karan Bajaj will continue to lead and scale this business in India and the US.

WhiteHat Jr had recently announced their plans to expand to other global markets such as Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand after a stellar growth in the US for its one-to-one online coding classes. After launching their courses in the US, since February this year, the company is growing at more than 100 per cent month-on-month in the country.

“WhiteHat Jr is the leader in the live online coding space. Karan has proven his mettle as an exceptional founder and the credit goes to him and his team for creating coding programs that are loved by kids. Under his leadership the company has achieved phenomenal growth in India and the US in a short span of time,” said Byju Raveendran, founder and CEO, BYJU’S. “Empowering children with the right future skills has always been part of our vision at BYJU’S and coding fits well into this. WhiteHat Jr’s coding product capabilities, combined with our pedagogy, expertise and scale, will help expand our learning offerings for school students” he said.

“We started WhiteHat Jr. to make kids creators instead of consumers of technology,” said Bajaj. “Technology is at the centre of every human interaction today and we had set out to create a coding curriculum that was being delivered live and connected students and teachers like never before. Integration with a visionary company such as BYJU’S will help take this idea to new heights and help unleash the remarkable creative potential of kids at a global scale.”

Launched in 2015, BYJU’S is the leader in offering personalised learning programs for school students in India. With 64 million students cumulatively learning from the app, 4.2 million annual paid subscriptions and an annual renewal rate of 85 per cent, BYJU’S has witnessed phenomenal growth. The app creates personalized learning programs for individual students based on their proficiency levels and capabilities which help them learn at their own pace and style. BYJU’S doubled its revenue from ₹1,430 crore to ₹2,800 crore in FY19-20.