Byju’s will gradually lay off 5 percent of its total workforce across product, content, media and technology teams. Edtech will now focus on brand awareness overseas and optimize budget priorities.
Tech companies are facing tough times. Financial losses for FY21 are pushing IT firms to control spending, freeze hiring and, in the worst cases, fire employees for poor performance. Recently, tech startup Byju’s announced the layoff of 2,500 employees. The company will gradually lay off about 5 percent of its 50,000 employees over the next six months across divisions including product, content, media and technology.
Mass layoffs were announced to control budget spending and optimize marketing and operational costs. Categorized as India’s most valuable startup, Byju’s posted a revenue loss of Rs 4,588 crore.
According to PTI, Byju’s is also merging its K10 subsidiaries – Meritnation, TutorVista, Scholar and HashLearn under one business unit. Meanwhile, Aakash and Great Learning will continue to operate as separate businesses.
“We have designed a path to profitability that we plan to reach by March 2023. We have built significant brand awareness across India and there is room to optimize the marketing budget and prioritize spend in a way that creates a global footprint. Second is functional cost and third is integrating more business units,” Byju co-founder Divya Gokulnath told PTI.
Co-founder of Byju Divya Gokulnath revealed that the company will now focus on building brand awareness overseas. It plans to forge new partnerships and hire 10,000 teachers for Indian and overseas businesses. “This (new plan) will help us increase efficiency and avoid redundancy.
So there will also be a rationalization of roles. Our hybrid learning model which is the training center and our online learning model which is Byju’s Classes or our learning app scales very good. Especially for our first two products, we plan to hire 10,000 teachers. Our sales will be based on what we do,” she added.
Byju’s released its audited financial statements on Wednesday after months of delay. The company reported that it faced a loss of Rs 4,588 crore for FY21. The loss was 19 times higher than in the previous fiscal year. For the fiscal end of March 31, 2022, the company revealed that its revenue grew to Rs 10,000 crore, but no report on profit and loss numbers was released.