Second markdown. Blackrock slashes BYJU’S valuation by 62% to $8.4 billion in March quarter

Blackrock has slashed edtech major BYJU’S valuation by 62 per cent to $8.4 billion in the quarter ending March 2023 as compared to BYJU’S latest valuation of $22 billion. 

This is the second markdown by Blackrock, earlier the investment firm has halved BYJU’S valuation. It should be noted that Blackrock holds 0.9 per cent stake in BYJU’S and such markdowns are based on firm’s internal costings. Prosus, too, pegged BJYU’S valuation at $6 billion in November 2022.

BYJU’S did not comment on businessline queries. Inc42 was the first to report this development.

As the funding winter intensifies and macroeconomic conditions worsen, private investors of multiple start-up unicorns like BYJU’S have slashed their valuations by 30-50 per cent. Most recent being the Fidelity Investments slashing Meesho’s valuation by 10 per cent.

• Also read:‘Loss after loss’: Indian parents say Byju’s pushed them into debt

In other instances of unicorn valuation cuts, Janus Henderson has also slashed PharmEasy’s valuation by 50 per cent to $2.8 billion from $5.6 billion. Further, US-based Neuberger Berman slashed the valuation of API Holdings (Pharmeasy) by 22 per cent to $4.39 billion. Neuberger also cut Pine Labs’ valuation to $3.14 billion from its last valuation of $5 billion.

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Ola’s American investor Vanguard Group slashed the company’s valuation by 35 per cent to $4.8 billion, compared to its peak valuation of $7.3 billion. In late 2022, Oyo’s valuation was also reduced to $2.7 billion from $10 billion by Japanese conglomerate, SoftBank.

• Also read:BYJU’S is raising $700 m at $22-billion flat valuation

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