Byju’s office / Source: Glassdoor
Indian edtech giant Byju’s is vying for group-level profitability in the June quarter, co-founder and CEO Byju Raveendran said at a webinar hosted by DealStreetAsia.
It was earlier targeting overall profitability by March 2023.
Raveendran said that five of the company’s six businesses – Aakash Educational Services, Great Learning, Epic, Osmo, and TutorVista – are either breakeven or profitable.
“We still have one business to solve for, where we still do not have a path to profitability,” he added, referring to WhiteHat Jr.
Byju’s acquired the coding platform for US$300 million in 2020. There have been several reports suggesting that the company has discussed shutting down WhiteHat Jr, which the company later denied. Raveendran said he still believes “it is a strong product-market fit.”
The challenges
Byju’s, the highest-valued edtech company in the world, has been reeling under pressure to pay a loan of US$1.2 billion. It also saw BlackRock, one of its major backers, mark down its valuation by almost 50%.
Stressing on the fact that the company is well-capitalized, Raveendran noted that the “there’s a lot of time” left for the company to repay the loan, which matures in November 2026. The company is also open to evaluating options of potentially refinancing the debt with equity rounds, he added.
See also: The $22b question on Byju’s valuation
Tech in Asia recently reported the company is in final-stage talks to close a funding round in the range of US$650 million to US$700 million at a flat valuation of US$22 billion.
Byju’s had also recently made headlines after laying off 5% of its total workforce, which amounted to about 2,500 employees. Co-founder Divya Gokulnath attributed the job cuts to an overlap of functions after its slew of acquisitions over the years.
“We also added 25,000 new jobs in one year,” added Raveendran. The edtech firm currently employs 55,000 people, making it one of the biggest startup employers in the country.
Editing by Miguel Cordon and Lorenzo Kyle Subido
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