Edtech major Byju’s, owned and operated by Think & Learn Pvt Ltd, saw its consolidated losses widen nearly 20 times to Rs 4,588.75 crore for the financial year ended March 2021 from Rs 231.69 crore in FY20, as per company’s financial statement. Revenue from operations marginally grew from Rs 2280.26 crore in FY21 from Rs 2189 crore in the previous year. Its overall revenue declined a little over 3 per cent to Rs 2428.39 crore in FY21 from Rs 2511.77 in the previous fiscal.
The company’s overall expenses stood at Rs 7027.47 crore in FY21, up from Rs 2873.34 crore in FY20. Notably, a majority of its spending last year are attributed to ‘business promotion expenses’ which is at Rs 2251 crore, up from Rs 900 crore in the previous fiscal.
Business Today has reviewed a copy of the company’s consolidated statement of profit and loss.
The company attributed the subpar revenue growth numbers to Covid-19 related changes in its business models.
“There was significant business growth in FY21 over FY20, but since this is the first year where new revenue recognition started because of a Covid-related business model change, almost 40 per cent of the revenue was deferred to subsequent years. The rationalized growth between FY21 and FY20 is a result of the changes made in the way BYJU’S recognizes its revenue, as advised by its auditors,” the company said in a statement.
As per the statement from the company, the Bengaluru-based firm clocked nearly Rs. 10,000 crore in gross revenues in FY22, Rs. 4530 crore of which came during the April-July period. The company also said offline physical coaching chain Aakash Educational Services Ltd (AESL) and higher education platform Great Learning that it acquired in FY22 have since doubled their revenues.
The company did not respond to an email query from Business Today seeking more details including breakup of financials of its many verticals and subsidiaries.
The edtech giant has been under severe pressure to for extended delays in filing its FY21 audited financial accounts.
As online education businesses began to feel the heat after regular offline classes resumed early this year, Byju’s is believed to have laid off 2,000-2,500 employees across group companies; however, the official figure is less than 500.
Byju’s currently operates over 200 offline tuition centres and aims to scale it up to 500 centres by the end of this year, and claims to have over 150 million learners accessing its products and services from more than 120 countries. It is backed by investors like Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Naspers, CPPIB, General Atlantic, Tencent, Sequoia Capital, Sofina, and Tiger Global.
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