Byju’s said on Thursday it has acquired California-headquartered Tynker, a leading coding platform for K-12 students, the latest in a series of major purchases as the Indian edtech giant attempts to aggressively expand to international markets.

The companies didn’t disclose the terms of the deal, but a person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that the Indian firm is spending about $200 million on the acquisition.

Tynker, which counts BBC Learning, Google, Microsoft, Mattel and NASA among its partners, operates an eponymous coding platform. It has amassed over 60 million kids on its platform, Tynker founders told TechCrunch in an interview.

The eight-year-old startup, which gamifies the learning experience to make it more exciting for kids to participate, also maintains partnerships — and has presence in — over 100,000 schools across 150 nations, said Srinivas Mandyam.

Mandyam, as well as Tynker’s other co-founders — Krishna Vedati and Kelvin Chong — will continue with the firm after the acquisition, they said. Vedati said in an interview that the startups began exploring ways to collaborate earlier this year.

“At Tynker, we believe that kids of all ages should develop the critical thinking skills needed to become the ‘makers of tomorrow’,” said Vedati, who serves as the startup’s chief executive.

“Our focus is on understanding what kids are passionate about – whether that’s building games, making animations or modding Minecraft – and we then create specific experiences, apps and personalized learning paths to empower them to create with code. We wholeheartedly believe that (Read more...)