TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ Edtech company Byju’s is now India’s most valuable unicorn startup with a valuation of $16.5 billion, surpassing fintech company Paytm’s $16 billion valuation. As per CB Insights data, as of June 2021, Byju’s is the 11th most valuable startup in the world. The total number of unicorns worldwide is 708 with a valuation of $ 2319 billion. Chinese company Bytedance, the parent company of TikTok, is the most valuable startup in the world with a valuation of $140 billion.
Byju’s investors include Tencent Holdings, Lightspeed India Partners and Sequoia Capital India. It has recently raised $350 million from UBS, private equity giant Blackstone, Abu Dhabi state fund ADQ, Phoenix Rising and video conference firm Zoom’s founder Eric Yuan. One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, has a valuation of $16 billion with investors like Intel Capital, Sapphire Ventures and Alibaba Group.
A unicorn company, or unicorn startup, is a private company with a valuation over $1 billion. As of June 2021, there are more than 700 unicorns around the world. Popular former unicorns include Airbnb, Facebook and Google. The variants include a decacorn, valued at over $10 billion, and a hectocorn, valued at over $100 billion, CB Insights said.