Edtech giant Byju’s has laid off over 2,500 employees

Edtech firm Byju’s has let go of over 2,500 employees from its core team and subsidiary companies, Moneycontrol reported.

According to the report, the layoff affected both full-time and contractual personnel across its core team’s sales and marketing, operations, content, and design units.

The news comes after it was reported that Byju’s-owned companies Toppr and WhiteHat Jr had both cut about 300 staff members.

Moneycontrol‘s sources, however, differ from these reports on the number of employees fired. The sources said that a total of over 1,500 staff from Toppr and WhiteHat Jr were sacked and that Byju’s has further laid off nearly 1,000 employees from its core operations teams.

The report added that the affected staff were offered a month’s salary as severance pay. They were also given a performance-based bonus and the equivalent of 15 days’ salary for each completed year at the company.

The move is part of the India-based edtech firm’s effort to cut costs as demand for online education continues to sink due to the reopening of schools and colleges, the report stated.

Founded in 2011 by Byju Raveendran and his wife Divya Gokulnath, Byju’s is the world’s most valuable edtech startup at a valuation of US$22 billion. It has a presence in over 100 countries and serves more than 150 million students globally.

See also: Tracking layoffs across Asia’s startup ecosystem