The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) will invest about Rs 1,393 crore in the Indian ed-tech startup BYJU's. The investment from Qatar will further raise the market valuation of the startup, which was valued at about Rs 37,636 crore in March 2019.
By investing Rs 1,393 crore QIA will acquire about a 5 percent stake in BYJU's. As per Business Standard, the term sheets for the contract have been signed which does not allow the scope of secondary stake sale to the Qatar Investment Authority.
This is the second time BYJU's has got this large investment from international government funds. Canadian pension fund (CPPIB) was the first to invest about Rs 3,763 crore in the startup. CPPIB is now planning to invest Rs 1,045 crore to buy an 8 percent stake in the Indian logistics startup Delhivery.
The investment will mark the beginning of the Gulf-based partnership with India's tech-based startup. The Gulf emirate had earlier invested Rs 8,362 crore in Indian telecom company Airtel and Rs 2,090 crore on an office space developer named RMZ Corp. The investing arm of the oil and natural gas giant aims at more investments in Indian housing spaces, as per reports.
Deals like these wherein prestigious government funds are investing in the growing Indian tech startup space increas the growth potential of the startup.
India is seeing more and more foreign government investments in the start-up sector. Apart from CPPIB and QIA, other government investing arms like GIC and OPIC are also regularly investing in India.
