AAA Byju’s buys Osmo in $120m deal

Byju’s buys Osmo in $120m deal

Educational app developer Byju’s has acquired US-based connected toy maker Osmo in a $120m deal that will hand exits to several corporate investors, TechCrunch reported on Wednesday.

The all-stock deal will involve Osmo backers including toy producer Mattel, educational publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, television producer Sesame Workshop and real estate developer JF Shea securing shares in Byju’s.

Founded in 2013, Osmo builds and sells educational toys, puzzles, board games and robots that are connected to online apps to help children aged between five and 12 learn while playing. It had raised at least $36m in funding pre-acquisition.

The company received $24m in a 2016 round that included Mattel and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as well as Collab+Sesame, an investment vehicle operated by Sesame Workshop, and Shea Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of JF Shea.

The round also featured Collaborative Fund, Calibrate Partners, Upfront Ventures, K9 Ventures and Accel, the latter of which had already led a $12m round for the company in 2014, investing alongside K9 and Upfront.

Deals database Crunchbase stated that K9 and Upfront had joined Founder Friendly Labs (FFL) to provide $2.5m of seed capital for Osmo in 2013. Confirmation of the round is not available but FFL does list Osmo as a portfolio company.

Osmo CEO Pramod Sharma and Byju’s founder Byju Raveendran told TechCrunch this week that Osmo will increase its content output following the acquisition.

India-based Byju’s closed a $540m primary and secondary funding round last month that was led by Naspers Ventures, the corporate venturing unit owned by e-commerce and media group Naspers, valuing it at $4bn according to TechCrunch.

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