What went wrong with Byju’s in the last two years?
Byju’s comprehensive annual financial statement for the fiscal year ending March 2021 has been submitted to the Registrar of Companies (RoC). It does make for some odd reading for the general public.
In a year when edtech companies flourished due to the pandemic and its forced online migration, Byju’s operating income was barely 4% more, to Rs 2280 crore in FY21, than in FY20, which was Rs 2,189 crore (FY20).
During this time, the company’s losses increased 14.9X to Rs 4,564 crore. Next, the expenditure and loss patterns of the company will be discussed. Let’s focus on its revenue streams for the time being. In FY21, sales of edutech products such as laptops, tablets, SD cards, and tech-enabled devices accounted for 81% of Byju’s total income. Revenue from this vertical decreased by 9.5% over the same period to Rs 1,848.7 crore.
In FY21, streaming and course fees brought in a combined Rs 429 crore for the tech company. Advertising and promotion were the sizes of the company’s cost centres or 32% of overall costs. This cost grew 2.5X to Rs 2,251 crore in FY21.
Byju’s second-largest cost in FY21 was employee perk fees, which surged 4.6X to Rs 1,943 crore. This includes the ESOP costs, which came to Rs 476 crore and were funded by equity.
The business is required to pay a fee to the parties for the sale of educational content to customers residing in GCC countries. On sales of Rs 497 crore to GCC countries in FY21, Byju incurred commission costs of Rs 237 crore.
A 16% increase in legal and professional fees to Rs 667 crore in FY21 was offset by a Rs 128 crore increase in sponsorship costs. The cost of compliance was clear because Byju bought several companies in FY21. The total costs incurred by the company towards the end of FY21 grew by 2.4X to Rs 7,027 crore.
It is important that Byju’s subtracted roughly Rs 816 crore from the total cost as the cost of intangible assets being developed. If the company included this sum, its expenditures for FY21 would have reached Rs 7,843 crore.
Losses for the most valuable edtech company in India increased 14.9X to Rs 4,564 crore in FY21 as a result of its huge expenditure sheet. Using the amount it has released as capital expenditure as a basis for calculation, the losses for FY21 would have exceeded Rs 5,380 crore.
Byju’s has the top spot for losses to all unicorns in FY21, including Flipkart.
To produce one unit of operating revenue, Byju’s has instilled Rs 3.08. The huge difference between costs and sales resulted in the company’s EBITDA margin and ROCE declining to -170.63% and -56.35%, respectively, in FY21.
Aristotle, WhiteHat Jr., and Scholar were bought by Byju’s in FY21. The prices for Inspilearn Education (Scholar) and Digital Aristotle (Aristotle) were Rs 20 crore and Rs 16.5 crore, respectively, while the price for Whitehat Jr.’s 76% of the shares was Rs 1,327 crore.
Byju’s data, which came after a protracted 18-month delay, only served to stoke a lot of rumours. and undoubtedly fail to live up to expectations. One can argue that the vast study fails to display any signs of an upcoming significant turnaround.
The company’s creator, Byju Raveendran, addressed the media after the initial findings were made public to clear any problems about the company’s future. Like attributing the slowing of growth to the change in revenue recognition accounting in FY21 or the point that EMI-driven sales were not recognised until important collections were made.
Both seem to be glaringly obvious upgrades that are not possible to reassure investors when viewed in retrospect. The rumours involving its business practices can still be dismissed if you give it credit for its size and scope. Byju’s claim that it is done with layoffs has already been rejected as news came last week that 2,500 more employees (out of a workforce of roughly 50,000) were fired due to what most outlets have directed to as “growth worries.”
If FY23 is already looking bleak, one must wonder whether the current approach is viable and able to deliver the kind of profits that investors have paid for. Raveendran’s projections that the company would serve admirably after FY21 may still be seen in the topline for FY22.
Byju’s posts The total income in FY22 was Rs 10,000 crore.
The largest ed-tech company in India, Byju’s, documented gross sales of around Rs 10,000 crore in FY22, according to a statement made on Wednesday. The business made sales totalling Rs. 4530 crores between April and July 2022.
In comparison to FY 20, the company’s sales for FY 21 were down 14% at Rs 2,428 crore.
By reported having made Rs 2,704 crore in revenue for FY 20. “BYJU’s auditor, Deloitte Haskins & Sells, has submitted a report that is unqualified for FY21. For FY 21 the BYJU’S group recorded profits of Rs. 2,428 crores “the startup said.
Byju’s declared that the revenue figure did not sufficiently reflect a considerable increase in business and that almost 40% of the revenue was carried over to future years.
A statement from Byju’s declared that about 40% of the profits were postponed to the years after. According to the corporation, “there was important business growth in FY21 over FY20, but this is the first year where new revenue recognition began due to a Covid-related business model transition.”
The rationalised growth between FY21 and FY20, according to the firm, was brought about by the changes in BYJUrevenue ‘S’s recognition policy that were suggested by its auditors.
According to the business, it is well-diversified across learning spectrums (from early learning to higher education), delivery methods (learning applications, live online learning, and hybrid learning), and locales; more than a quarter of its current revenue is generated outside of India.
Byju’s said that in addition to its current staff of 20,000 teachers, it plans to hire a total of 10,000 more teachers in the future year. The company is developing its teams, bringing on senior leadership, and successfully strengthening operations to accommodate growth.
In more than 120 countries, the company claims that more than 150 million students are now using its services and products.
Why would there layoff of employees when BYJU’S is now undergoing enormous success and popularity?
However, BYJU’S employers have been dissatisfied with the Recent Incident since the company laid off more than 500 workers, which had a terrible impact on their lives.
The edtech business Byju’s released a statement in response to media reports that it had fired 2,500 employees across its group companies, claiming that it was “optimising” its teams across group organisations.
According to the company, less than 500 employees from Byju’s group companies are believed to have contributed to the project as a whole.
We vehemently refute the false information provided. We are making the most of our teams across all of our group companies to realign our business goals and quicken our long-term growth. According to a corporate spokeswoman, the total operation employs less than 500 people from Byju’s group companies.
Although those who have been sacked allege that 1,100 employees at Toppr alone have been put off, Byju’s reported on Thursday that fewer than 500 employees at Whitehat Jr. and Toppr had been let go.
250 workers left the company in April and May, and Whitehat Jr., another business in Byju’s group of enterprises, destroyed 300 jobs in addition to those at Toppr.
Employees of Toppr who were let go claim they received a call on Monday from the company telling them that they would be fired immediately if they didn’t quit.
Chemistry is a subject that I know a lot about. My entire team was dismissed. While those who stay will receive nothing from Toppr, those who leave will receive payment for one month. According to a Toppr employee who asked to remain anonymous, over 1,100 workers were laid off from Toppr.
According to reports, they had been terminating personnel from the firms they had bought in the past to keep their names hidden from the public, but they have now done so from their main operations.
The decision has been made, according to a Whitehat Jr. spokesman, to realign corporate goals and accelerate results with a focus on long-term growth.
Most of our sales and support staff members have been asked to report to our offices in Gurgaon and Mumbai starting on April 18 as part of our back-to-work industry. When necessary, we have provided moving services and taken care of medical and personal emergencies.
Our professors will continue to teach us online. Whitehat Jr. spokeswoman: “We continue to invest in creating a curriculum that is appropriate for kids and maintaining a strong teacher community with high standards for hiring and training.”
A different employee who was released by Toppr claims that Hayath, the company’s senior executive, promised everyone earlier this year that there were several opportunities for career progression.
However, there have been some signs of sluggish business since offline classes nationwide continued. Moreover, I have worked with Whitehat Jr. The employee continued by saying that traditional classroom education is preferable to online instruction.
Days before, a Bloomberg article citing persons with knowledge of the situation declared that Byju’s was postponing payments for a roughly $1 billion buyout transaction that had been finalised the last year.
After two years of uncontrollable expansion, it seems that demand for edtech services is dropping, and Byju is looking to reduce costs.
A quoting source claims that Byju’s has fired full-time and contract staff from Toppr, WhiteHat Jr., and its core team, which consists of the departments of sales and marketing, operations, content, and design.
Several of the impacted employees confirmed to PTI that Toppr, a division of tech juggernaut Byju’s group, fired 1,100 employees earlier this week, or around 36% of its workforce.
There are now incredibly fewer content, solution, and design teams across all group organisations. Even the entire roster for some of these teams has disappeared.
Byjus fired 1,200 people from just Toppr. According to sources cited in the article, Toppr sacked 300–350 permanent employees and threatened to withhold pay for one to one and a half months for another 300.
According to extra sources cited, “approximately 600 contractual employees were let go; their contracts were set to expire in October or November this year.” According to the study, the upper management justified the layoffs with claims of role redundancy and cost-cutting.
Additionally, Byju’s desires to merge with Toppr. This will make multiple positions—outside of teaching—necessary for obvious reasons. Only about 100 individuals are now employed with Toppr. More sources were mentioned in the Moneycontrol article.
This year, the edtech businesses Unacademy, Vedantu, Frontrow, Lido, and others have combined laid off thousands of workers. Following a recent pattern, another ed-tech juggernaut has sent hundreds of staff pink slips.
About 500 workers have been let go from Byju’s, a Bengaluru-based business valued at $22 billion and home of WhiteHat Jr. and Toppr. According to the company, the decision will increase cost-effectiveness.
There may be more department-wide layoffs, according to sources.
This took place as the company, run by Raveendran of Byju, was training for an IPO. By the next year, the company plans to go public. Previous rumours suggested that it would list as a major listing in the US and a secondary listing in India, or the opposite. Byju’s has sizable markets in both the US and India.
A corporate spokeswoman confirmed that 500 employees had been let go. The firm rejected a story in the media that stated there will be 2,500 layoffs. To emphasise our business priorities and encourage long-term success, we are making the most of our staff across group organisations. Less than 500 employees from Byju’s group companies are working on this project in total.
According to sources, Byju’s delayed making payments for an acquisition deal worth $1 billion from the previous year. Additionally, it is said to have made a cash offer to acquire 2U Inc., an ed-tech company listed on the US stock exchange and valued at more than $1 billion.
One of Byju’s 12 acquisitions between 2020 and 2021 was Toppr. The Toppr trade involved a $150 million mixture of cash and shares.
In 2020, Byju’s paid $300 million to purchase Mumbai-based WhiteHat Jr. For $300 million in cash, WhiteHat Jr. founder Karan Bajaj sold his 18-month-old business to Byju CEO Raveendran 2020.
Recently, after being advised to work from home, more than 800 WhiteHat Jr. employees quit their jobs. The reopening of schools and universities has sparked a crisis in the edtech sector as a result of falling valuations, deferred financing rounds, and unfavourable investor opinion.
Unacademy, the edtech unicorn, let go of 424 and 600 employees, among others. The ed-tech startup Lido Learning has ended permanently.
How will BYJU’s FY21 and FY22 performance impact its operations going forward? When will earnings be realised?
After an 18-month wait, BYJU’S, India’s most valuable unlisted start-up, finally proclaimed its audited results on September 14, 2022. As a result of the delay in declaring its results, BYJU’S received harsh criticism and even condemnation from the government. Its finances and corporate governance practises were scrutinised closely during the next week.
The parent firm of BYJU, Think & Learn Pvt. Ltd., had its compact losses almost treble, reaching Rs 4,588.75 crore in FY21 from Rs 231.69 crore in FY20. From FY20 to FY21, operations’ income rose somewhat, going from Rs 2,189 crore to Rs 2,280.26 crore. The business attributed the slow growth to a change in how it accounts for sales that were recommended by its auditing firm, Deloitte Haskins & Sells.
Total revenues for streaming services are now booked across the lifetime of usage rather than being recognised at the beginning of multi-year subscriptions. It now considers the repayment of instalment loans that its customers have received after they have been made.
According to the auditor’s note, as a result of these revisions, the company was unable to recognise Rs 1,156 crore (of deferred payment) as revenue in FY21. Following revelations of its unconventional accounting practises, BYJU’S came under fire; some experts argued that this demonstrated a lackadaisical adherence to strict governance norms.
There is a governance vacuum since businesses develop their metrics, making it challenging for stakeholders to assess the company’s performance. Using financial data, the stakeholders should be able to make like-for-like comparisons. According to Shriram Subramanian, the founder and managing director of InGovern Research Services, BYJU must show that it takes corporate governance seriously.
The results for its FY22, which are due on September 30, are now the focus of attention. The start-up, whose corporate office is in Bengaluru, recently teased its top-line results by stating that it had gross revenues of Rs 10,000 crore in FY22.
Even though the audited statistics have not yet been disclosed, the amount represents a substantial improvement above its FY21 figures. However, most of its gross revenues might have originated from acquisitions completed in FY22, such as those of Aakash Educational Services, Great Learning, Epic, and Toppr.
“Acquisition-related revenues haven’t just been coming in large amounts in FY21. Because some of it would be carried over to FY23, I predict that Byju’s revenue for the upcoming fiscal year [FY22] will be between Rs 6,500 and 7,500 crores. Acquisitions will be responsible for between 40 and 50 per cent of this growth, claims an unnamed tech entrepreneur.
In CY21, the company made purchases totalling more than $2.5 billion, with the largest transaction—the purchase of the tutoring network Aakash—being clouded by controversy. This resulted in a postponement of the final payment of Rs 1,983 crore to Blackstone, Aakash’s investor, from June 2022 to September 23, 2022. The debt was paid by BYJU’S on time, stopping rumours of further postponement.
Despite the company’s founder and CEO Byju Raveendran’s assertions that it has enough cash and the delay is entirely administrative, industry experts have pointed to the company’s low financial status as the reason. They do have cash on hand, but nowadays it’s also crucial to make sure the runway is in good shape. Additionally, one investor who desired to stay anonymous said that the outstanding sum wasn’t small.
The $800 million funding round that was revealed in March of this year did not include a $250 million investment that was meant to be a part of it, which has made the situation worse. While Sumeru Ventures and Oxshott Capital failed to fulfil their $250 million commitment, Raveendran committed $400 million in the round.
It is still unknown when the money will arrive, despite BYJU’S prior assertion that the delay was due to “macroeconomic difficulties.” That brings new finance back into focus at a time when entrepreneurs all across the world are struggling due to a lack of investor interest.
Additionally, investors’ reaction to BYJU’s webcast was negative. Several Middle Eastern investors, including the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the Qatar Investment Authority, have engaged in multiple rounds of negotiations with BYJU’S without much success, according to the sources, BT consulted.
It allegedly rejected a sovereign fund’s offer to support early this year at a lower valuation than it had received in its prior round, according to sources. In the current market, it would be challenging for BYJU’S to raise a straight round (at the same valuation) as private investors desire greater downside protection.”
To receive a markup on value in this market, the company must take part in a structured round. Investors would want a 2- to 3-fold liquidation preference or a guaranteed IRR. According to a venture capitalist who would rather remain anonymous, the stated valuation for these firms is useless.
Additionally, according to Raveendran, the company would run a flat round before moving on to a converter round, giving investors a 20% IPO discount. A company raises cash in a convertible round by issuing convertible notes. When the next financial event for the company occurs, these notes will then convert into stock.
K. Ganesh, a serial entrepreneur and the promoter of start-ups such as BigBasket, Portea Medical, HomeLane, and Bluestone, claims that any kind of financing is appropriate in this sector and that BYJU’S can address these issues.
“It makes no difference whether it is round, down, or flat. These changes in valuation affect the majority of enterprises. Nobody is disturbed by it, save from the investors from the prior round who will briefly experience a discount, just as the current stock market crash hasn’t harmed the company’s prospects, he adds.
He goes on to state that BYJU’S is an outstanding achievement for the Indian start-up sector and the tech business, and that its scale, execution, effect, investment, and value have been amazing. To safeguard its development and reputation, it could yet improve on several aspects.
He continues by claiming that, once these issues have been resolved, BYJU will succeed once more given its present scope and size, the calibre of its investors, and its track record of success. BYJU’S, whose market value climbed from $8 billion in January 2020 to $22 billion in March 2022, seems to be refocusing and taking a break.
In a recent email to the staff, Raveendran stated that the company was revising its growth-at-all-costs strategy to place a greater emphasis on profitability, something that many start-ups are now beginning to work on. “Throughout FY23 and beyond, we’ll combine efficiency and growth to achieve sustainability.
He wrote in a note to the staff that the ultimate objective is to manage resources to maximise impact efficiently. Is this the calm before the storm or the start of a cruise into choppy waters? It is impossible to tell with BYJU’S.
edited and proofread by nikita sharma
