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India’s most valued start-up Byju’s — in the news lately for issues ranging from delayed audit to layoffs — is set to make public the audited financial statement for 2020-21 from global consulting firm Deloitte ‘within a week’, top sources privy to the development told news agency IANS on Monday.
Having made at least 10 acquisitions for a cumulative transaction value of about $2.5 billion last year, the initial public offering (IPO)-bound educational technology (edtech) unicorn has consolidated its business after ‘ironing out all complexities’. It filed its financial results after ‘due diligence’.
So far, the firm has raised over $6 billion in funding, with its founder and Chief Executive Officer Byju Raveendran infusing $400 million during the latest $800-million funding round at a valuation of $22 billion.
Byju’s is aiming to file an IPO in the US via the special purpose acquisition company route. The company is also reportedly in talks to raise another $1 billion as it expands globally.
According to reports, Byju’s is eyeing a Nasdaq-listed American edtech company 2U for nearly $1 billion at $15 per share. The company has already ‘closed’ payments related to its $1 billion acquisition of offline test preparatory services provider Aakash Educational Services.
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It’s not just a funding winter. The crisis for edtech runs much deeper with the return of offline coaching. Even well-funded unicorns are under pressure to reinvent. Suddenly, retrenchments, rightsizing, and cost-cutting have become the new mantras for edtechs.
Byju’s laid off over 2,500 employees across its group companies as the unicorn is looking to aggressively cut costs with demand for edtech services moderating after two consecutive years of hypergrowth. It laid off full-time and contractual employees from Toppr, WhiteHat Jr, and its core team across sales and marketing, operations, content, and design teams.
As Indian cricket team’s jersey sponsor, Byju’s also allegedly owes Rs 86.21 crore as dues to the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
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