After Paytm, Byju's positions itself as one of the most valuable companies

Indian online education startup Byju's is on the same path as Paytm as DST Global, the investment firm headed by billionaire Yuri Milner, is close to investing as much as $400 million according to a person familiar with the negotiations.

The deal values Byju's at $10.5 billion and could be signed as early as this weekend, said the person, who didn't want to be identified as the talks are private. The transaction would make Byju's India's second-most valuable startup after Alibaba Group Holding-backed financial payments brand, Paytm.

The Russian-Israeli billionaire is an early backer of the largest internet firms including Alibaba, Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc.

His DST has also funded a string of high-profile Indian startups such as online retailer Flipkart Online Services, ride-hailing startup Ola, food-delivery startup Swiggy and business e-commerce startup Udaan.

Byju's, whose investors include Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Naspers and Tiger Global Management, simplifies math and science concepts for K-12 students through games and videos. It was founded by Byju Raveendran, a former teacher and son of educators, who conceived the smartphone app in 2011. In a country that places a premium on education, he launched the app just as smartphones were becoming ubiquitous.

The app caters to students from kindergarten through 12th grade and has over 570 lakh registered users and over 350 lakh paid subscribers. It's adding over 300,000 new subscribers every month. Byju's doubled revenues in the year ended March 2020 to Rs 2,800 crore ($373 million) from the previous financial year and is profitable, a rarity for Indian startups.