Byju’s plans to lay off 2,500 employees and hopes to become profitable by March 2023

Bengaluru: In its effort to become profitable by March of next year, India’s well-known edu-tech startup Byju’s will let go of 2,500 staff, the Tiger Global-backed company announced on Wednesday.

The online learning platform, which was valued at over $22 billion in September, had in May announced a loss of 45.64 billion rupees ($554.77 million) for the fiscal year 2021 because of rising promotion and labour costs.

The 50,000-person firm said it anticipates layoffs at its product, content, media, and technology teams as well as changes to its sales and marketing strategies to result in “sizable savings with no impact on growth”.

“We aim to ensure sustainable growth alongside strong revenue growth,” Mrinal Mohit, chief executive at Byju’s India business, said.

As a result of lockdowns forcing schools to stay closed for months, Byju’s, which had emerged as a pandemic winner, has seen a decline in demand.

With educational technology companies expanding their footprint in coaching hotspot Kota and other Indian cities, the company is also planning to add 10,000 teachers to its present strength of 20,000 in 2023. This is due to the increased competition in the market.

In the fiscal year that ended in March 2022, Byju’s invested $2.5 billion in the acquisition of businesses like Aakash, the American company Epic, the children’s coding platform Tynker, the business of professional education Great Learning, and the exam fraud platform Toppr.

Last month, Byju’s paid 19 billion rupees to Blackstone Inc, settling its dues to the private equity firm as part of a $950 million deal to buy Aakash Educational.

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