Why India’s ed-tech firm Byju’s paid $120 million for kids AR game maker Osmo

Posted byby Dean Takahashi
January 21, 2019
Updated June 18, 2025
9 min

Last week, India’s ed-tech startup Byju acquired Osmo, a kid-focused augmented reality games for iPhones and iPads, for $120 million.

That was a big move that signals the global ambition of Byju, which recently raised a $540 million war chest from South Africa’s Naspers Ventures and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.