BYJU's closes $1 bn Aakash acquisition, $800 mn funds 'expected soon'

New Delhi, July 4 (IANS) Edtech platform BYJU's on Monday said it has closed the nearly $1 billion acquisition of offline test preparatory services provider Aakash. The company, in a statement, said that its payments to Aakash are "closed" and the "audited financial results are going to be announced in the next 10 days". Reacting to another report that BYJU's is yet to receive funds from US-based Sumeru Ventures, founded by spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravishankar, the edtech giant said most of the funds have been received and the rest is on track. In March, BYJU'S announced to raise $800 million from Sumeru Ventures, Vitruvian Partners, and BlackRock. Byju Raveendran, Founder and CEO, was also part of the funding round and made a personal investment of $400 million. The company said that "its fundraising efforts are on track and majority of the $800 million has been already received". "The balance is also expected soon," a company spokesperson told IANS. The report had claimed that Sumeru Ventures participated in a $800 million round in BYJU's "But the money hasn't come in and questions are being raised about the fund's antecedents." Late last month, BYJU's announced to cut nearly 600 jobs -- 300 employees at its Toppr learning platform and another 300 at coding platform WhiteHat Jr. "In order to reduce redundancies across our organisation after multiple acquisitions, we had to let go of nearly one per cent of our 50,000+ strong workforce," said a company spokesperson. "This retrenchment was a result of a strategic decision to improve business efficiencies throughout BYJUS and its group companies," it added, saying it continues to hire across levels.