Can the ed-tech boom last?

BYJU’S WAS piling on users even before covid-19 closed classrooms around the world. India’s most valuable private startup was co-founded in 2011 by Byju Raveendran, a celebrity maths tutor whose classes have drawn crowds big enough to fill stadiums. By 2019 tens of millions of Indian children had signed up to use the firm’s flagship product, an app that serves up online lessons intended to supplement regular schooling. That year Byju’s began sponsoring India’s national cricket team.Since then India’s schools have spent more time shut than open—and the fortunes of Byju’s have only improved. The number of children whose parents pay for them to have full use of its app has more than doubled, to 7m. Late last year investors valued the firm at over $20bn, a three-fold increase since pre-covid days. In January Bloomberg reported that Byju’s may soon unveil plans to go public in New York, by merging with a blank-cheque company. The news agency had previously rumoured that such a deal could raise around $4bn, valuing the firm at a cool $48bn.