Byju's to fire 2,500, reduce marketing spends

BENGALURU: The surge in losses in FY21 has pushed Byju's to announce a series of measures to improve profitability, including laying off 2,500 of its 50,000 employees, and reducing marketing spends. The company also announced measures to improve its sales process, following criticism that its sales executives often exert excessive pressure on customers to buy subscription plans for education content.
Byju's, the highest valued Indian startup and the highest valued education venture in the world, has come under intense pressure following the delay in the announcement of its FY21 results, and the rise in losses to Rs 4,500 crore in that year, from Rs 262 crore in the previous year.
The company on Wednesday said it has integrated all its India businesses that provide content for kindergarten to class 10. These include its acquisitions over the past three years of Toppr, Meritnation, TutorVista, Scholar, and HashLearn. The layoffs, it said, is partly on account of the redundancies created by this integration, and partly because of better use of technology. The layoffs will be across product, content, media, and technology teams.
The company, however, said it will be a net hirer in this fiscal, with plans to add 10,000 teachers to its existing teacher strength of 20,000. It said senior leadership talent will also be hired to further build operational strength.
"As a mature organisation that takes its responsibility towards investors and stakeholders seriously, we aim to ensure sustainable growth alongside strong revenue growth. These measures will help us achieve profitability in the defined time frame of March 2023," Mrinal Mohit, CEO of Byju's India business, said.