Byju Raveendran, the founder of edutech startup Byju's, was born in Azhikode village of Kerala in 1981. His parents were physics and mathematics teachers in a Malyali school where he received his education. Raveendran himself, as an engineering graduate, started teaching mathematics to his friends just to offer help, after spending two years at a shipping company.
He also helped students prepare for entrance exams like CAT, many students cracked CAT under his guidance, after he scored 100% in CAT himself in 2003. That's when he decided to take up teaching as a full-time job, taking classes with hundreds of students and also taking classes through satellite communication.
In 2011, Raveendran came up with the idea with his wife, Divya Gokulnath to establish Think and Learn Pvt Ltd, an educational company with the help of his students offering video-based learning programs. After four years of development, in August, 2015, the company launched Byju's learning app paving way for Raveendran to become a successful entrepreneur and billionaire.
Byju's provides training to students for entrance examinations such as IIT-JEE, NEET, CAT, IAS among others through its diverse courses. The app started gaining popularity quickly as it was one of the first of its kinds offering education services to students in the comfort of their home. In 2018, Byju Raveendran won EY Entrepreneur of the year award (startup category).
As of 2020, Byju's is one of the world's most successful startups with 33 million users and 3.5 million paid subscribers, listing Raveendran in the Top 100 billionaires of India and in Fortune magazine's 40 under 40 list (technology category ). This year, owing to the pandemic situation, subscriptions to the app increased by a huge margin, claiming over Rs. 2,800 crore revenue for the app reporting a two fold jump.
With Raveendran's ambition and determination, he was able to bring about a revolution in the education industry of India apart from setting up a billion worth empire for himself. Byju's continued with its growth spurt even today and is set to reach greater heights in a post-covid India.
