by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Entrepreneurship, Investing, Markets, Networking, Online Marketing, SMEs, Social Media, Startup Basics, Startup Financing, Technology, Venture Capital
Bengaluru : Online tutoring platform Byju’s has raised $540 million (Rs 3,865.5-crore) venture funds from Naspers and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), the company said on Monday.
“The new round of funding will drive Byju’s to further innovate, explore and set benchmarks for tech-enabled learning products,” the city-based Byju’s said in a statement.
The funds will help in the company’s plans of expanding to international markets and investing in technology that will allow personalised learning for students, it said.
The company, however, did not disclose in its statement the total funds raised so far and which round of funding the latest was.
It had earlier raised funds from Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Tencent, Sequoia Capital, Sofina, Verlinvest, Aarin Capital, Times Internet, Lightspeed Venture Partners and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
“This partnership (with Naspers, CPPIB) will strengthen our ability to deliver our vision to build the world’s largest education company,” said the company’s chief executive Byju Raveendran in the statement.
India has the largest school-age population in the world and the Indian households are willing to invest significantly in children’s education, Raveendran said.
“We believe the importance of quality education among Indian population fuelled our ability to create an engaging learning app,” he added.
The company said its focus remains on long-term sustainable growth at a time when the edutech industry is undergoing changes with students wanting to learn through engaging and interactive methods.
“It is only through active learning that we can prepare our youth for the jobs of tomorrow,” Raveendran added.
Founded in 2011 in Bengaluru, Byju’s has been running its ‘Byju’s Learning App’ since 2015 and claims to have over 30 million students learning from the app with 2 million annual paid subscriptions.
The tech firm offers learning programmes for students in classes 4-12 and competitive examinations like Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and Common Admission Test (CAT) among others.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : US President Donald Trump announced that he intends to reduce the American federal budget deficit by cutting financing to every government agency and department by 5 per cent.
“I’m going to ask each of you to come back with a 5 per cent cut for our next meeting, I think you’ll all be able to do it… Get rid of the fat, get rid of the waste… It will have a huge impact,” Trump told the Cabinet at the White House on Wednesday, adding that he would be willing to allow “special exemptions” for one or two departments but some might have to undergo cuts larger than 5 per cent.
Trump’s proposal comes after the Treasury Department reported that the federal budget deficit increased this year to $779 billion, or by 17 per cent over last year, the largest deficit in six years, reports Efe news.
Although he did not get into specifics, Trump probably was referring to the cuts that will be in his administration’s budget proposal for fiscal 2020, which he will send to Congress at the beginning of next year.
However, although the President can ask his Cabinet members to cut their departments’ budgets, the federal funds are ultimately approved by Congress, quite apart from the wishes and desires of the president.
Lawmakers have the freedom to include their own spending plans for federal agencies and the rest of the government, although the president has the right to veto any budget they approve.
Three-quarters of the federal government’s operations have been financed through the end of September 2019, while the remaining agencies, including the Departments of Agriculture, Justice, Transportation and Homeland Security have been funded through December 7.
Congress will try to avoid a partial government shutdown and approve a budget for those agencies before the end of this year.
Trump had already asked for double-digit spending reductions for some federal departments, but this was rejected by Congress.
The president’s first budget proposal, made last year, included eliminating 62 agencies, something that legislators completely ignored.
Trump has blamed Democrats in Congress for seeking to raise spending on national programmes in exchange for fulfilling his wish to strengthen the military, but his tax reform has had one of the greatest impacts on increasing the deficit since it imposed significant tax cuts, especially on the wealthiest taxpayers.
Despite the fact that he does not want to cause a government shutdown prior to the November midterm elections, the magnate might be willing to do so in early December, before the next budget negotiation deadline.
—IANS
