Ed-tech startup Byju's is close to raising $400 million from the investment firm DST Global. The deal is expected to see a closure as early as this week, a report said. The deal values Byju's at $10.5 billion, Bloomberg reported citing an unidentified source. Once the deal is sealed with Russia-Israeli billionaire Yuri Milner's firm, the online education provider would become the second-most valuable startup after Alibaba Group Holding-backed financial payments brand, Paytm.

Paytm was valued at $16 billion late last year after it raised its $1 billion Series G round. Byju's raised a fresh round of funding from Bond, a global technology investment firm, at a valuation of $10.5 billion, in June this year. Earlier in January, Tiger Global had invested $200 million in the company, valuing the ed-tech platform then at nearly $8 billion.

Byju's - The Learning App is the common brand name for Think and Learn Private Limited, an educational technology and online tutoring firm founded in 2011 by Byju Raveendran at Bangalore. The company has 42 million registered users and 3 million paid subscribers. Students are spending 71 minutes on the app daily and the annual renewal rates are 85 per cent.

It also tripled its revenue from Rs 520 crore to Rs 1,480 crore in FY18-19, and turned profitable on a full-year basis. The company expects to double its revenue to Rs 3,000 crore in the current financial year.