Comments
Edtech unicorn Byju’s has announced new fundraising of $250 million from its existing investors, including Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA).
According to a source close to the development, the round has been raised at the company’s earlier valuation of $22 billion. Commenting on the development, Byju Raveendran, Founder and CEO of Byju’s, said, “Byju’s is now at that sweet spot of its growth story where the unit economics and the economies of scale both are in its favour. This means the capital that we now invest in our business will result in profitable growth and create sustainable social impact.”
He added that regardless of the adverse macroeconomic conditions, 2022-23 is set to be Byju’s best year in terms of revenue, growth, and profitability. For FY22, the company earlier said that its gross unaudited revenue is close to ₹10,000 crore and is now projecting to do ₹15,000 crore revenue in FY23 along with better margins.
In FY 21, Byju’s reported gross revenue of ₹2,428 crores and its losses ballooned to ₹4,588 crores, almost 20 times the ₹231 crore loss it reported in FY20. The jump in losses was attributed to certain changes in the company’s revenue recognition.
Byju’s aims to achieve group-level profitability by March 2023 with a three-pronged approach. It consolidates all its K10 India subsidiaries into one unit to leverage their synergies. Aakash Education and Great Learning will continue to operate as stand-alone independent units in test prep and upskilling. Further, Byju’s will now be retargeting its marketing budget towards its overseas markets. The group is also increasing the strength of its inside sales team.
As a result of an increased focus on profitability, Byju’s will be laying off 2,500 employees. In June, too, Byju’s had laid off around 500 people across Whitehat Jr. and Toppr to recalibrate its business priorities and accelerate its long-term growth.
In line with its long-term strategic plan, Byju’s launched its hybrid learning offering Byju’s Tuition Centre (BTC), in 2022. Today, there are 250+ active BTCs across India, and the company aims to scale it up to 500 centres by the end of this financial year. Byju’s has been backed by prominent investors, including Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Naspers, CPPIB, General Atlantic, Tencent, Sequoia Capital, Sofina, Verlinvest, IFC, Aarin Capital, TimesInternet, Lightspeed ventures, Tiger Global, Owl Ventures and Qatar Investment Authority.
Related Stories
Veranda Learning to acquire CA test-prep provider JK Shah Education
Chennai-based edtech Veranda Learning, Mumbai-based JK Shah Education target pan-India reach
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.