In five stories: a year of controversy for Byju’s

The ETtech team kept a close eye on all the developments surrounding Byju’s. Here are five-must read stories:

Byju’s losses swell to Rs 4,588 crore in delayed FY21 results

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After a delay of nearly 18 months,
Byju’s released its audited results for the financial year ended March 2021 in September 2022. The company readjusted its revenue from operations to Rs 2,280 crore even as it incurred massive losses of Rs 4,588 crore, up from just Rs 262 crore in the previous fiscal.

This was a significant drop of 48% from the projected revenue. Byju Raveendran, founder & CEO of Byju’s,
attributed it to business model changes due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Cofounder Divya Gokulnath also rebuffed media reports on the company’s delayed FY21 financials in a
lengthy LinkedIn post.

Byju’s sacks about 2,500 employees in ‘rationalisation’ bid

A month after furnishing its audited FY21 financials 18 months late,
Byju’s announced mass layoffs in October. The firm said it would sack 2,500 people, or about 5% of its 50,000-strong workforce.

Also read:
Byju’s staff reveal harsh work conditions at edtech giant

Prior to this, the company had fired at
least 600 people from group firms such as Toppr and WhiteHat Jr.

Later, Raveendran acknowledged in an internal email that the
layoff process was “not as smooth” as the company intended.

The firm, which decided to shut down and fire 140 employees at its
product development centre in Thiruvananthapuram, had to
reverse the decision after the state government intervened.

Accessing all kinds of capital to close large multi-billion dollar buys: CEO

Raveendran told ET in an interview in May that the next 12 months would be the best time to acquire companies.

“We are looking at large multi-billion-dollar acquisitions… That’s why we are accessing all kinds of capital. We are exploring acquisitions in the US.”

Byju’s raises $800 million at $22 billion valuation


As part of a
pre-IPO round, the firm raised $800 million in fresh funding in May. Founder Byju Raveendran invested $400 million in his personal capacity in the round.

In October, Byju’s closed a
financing round of $250 million from its existing investors, including Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital also put money into India’s highest-valued startup.

A few days later, Byju’s took a
Rs 300 crore loan from its subsidiary, Aakash Educational Services.

In December, the startup appointed an adviser to
restructure its $1.2 billion loan. It also deferred the $1 billion listing plans of Aakash Educational Services.

ICAI, NCPCR probe and more

In November, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) said it was
looking into certain “issues” with the company’s financial disclosures.

Lok Sabha member
Karti Chidambaram had earlier flagged concerns about the edtech startup’s financials.

Later, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) summoned Raveendran over allegations of malpractice by the company’s sales team.

Read:
‘Loss after loss’: parents detail how Byju’s pushed them into debt

Subsequently, NCPCR chairperson Priyank Kanoongo told ET that Byju’s would
put in place an ‘affordability’ test for parents to better understand their financial bandwidth.

Also read |
Byju’s buying phone numbers of kids, parents and threatening them: NCPCR chief