EdTech giant BYJU’S has acquired Bengaluru-based computer vision and Augmented Reality startup Whodat for an undisclosed amount.
With the acquisition, Whodat’s early investor Ideaspring Capital, which had put in $600K at the seed stage, has exited from the company, and BYJU’S has taken ownership of the entire Whodat’s team and their proprietary computer vision platform.
Founded in 2013 by Sriram Ganesh and Kaushik Das, Whodat’s AR platform creates immersive experiences that automatically detect users’ environments without using physical markers to overlay 3D content. The technology powers applications in mobility and robotics, and is expected to help Byju’s product development, impacting the learning experiences of students.
Commenting on the development, Anita Kishore, Chief Strategy Officer at BYJU’S, said,
“We are excited to have Sriram, Kaushik and the entire Whodat team join BYJU’S. This will help us accelerate our product roadmap to provide immersive educational products across our product lines.”
Byju’s is building itself into a digital and online learning powerhouse – focused on everything from K12 to competitive test preparation and professional education. Previously, Whodat had clients in the social, gaming, and retail sectors and had integrated its software development kit (SDK) into its platforms to provide contextual information about the users’ indoor environments.
Sriram Ganesh, Co-founder of Whodat and an alumnus at Stanford University Graduate School of Business said,
“We are incredibly excited to partner with BYJU’S on a mission to make students across the world fall in love with learning. Whodat has had an incredible journey so far and this will leapfrog our impact to the next level.”
Whodat was a part of Microsoft Accelerator (Fall 2016 batch) before being backed by Ideaspring Capital in a debt and seed round in 2017.
Meanwhile, this is the seventh acquisition carried out by BYJU’S this year. The Bengaluru-based EdTech giant had acquired three companies in July alone – Great Learning (skilling and higher education platform) for $600 million, Toppr (K-12 learning and test prep platform) for $150 million, and Epic (digital reading platform for kids) for $500 million. Prior to this, the company had acquired on-demand tutoring app HashLearn in May, test prep giant Aakash Educational Services in April, and doubt-solving platform Scholr in February. The world’s most valued EdTech startup has already spent over $2 billion in M&As in 2021 alone.
