Indian Edtech platform Byju's has raised funds worth $250 million from its existing investors at a $22 billion valuation as revealed by the company in a statement on Monday, October 18. The company said that Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) participated in the round but did not give a split. No specific names of the investors who participated in the round were declared either.
Founder and CEO of BYJU’S, Byju Raveendran has highlighted that this year is going to be best for the company in terms of ‘revenue, growth, and profitability.’ Byju is backed by well-known prominent venture capital and private equity firms such as Sequoia Capital India, Bond, Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Silver Lake, Sands Capital Management, Tencent, Naspers Ventures, and a few more. Less than a week after the announcement of their massive layoffs as a part of their reconstruction plan, Byju's announced the new fundraising from their existing investors.
In the statement, Raveendran said that the capital will now be invested in the business and will be a result of “profitable growth”. He also said, “Continued support from our esteemed investors re-affirms the impact created by us so far, and validates our path to profitability.”
Byju’s is now at a sweet spot in its growth story where the units of economics and the economics of scale both are in its favour. The company recently announced laying off 2,500 employees from its total workforce. The spokesperson of the company said that the layoffs will take place over a period of six months and not immediately. The company is also set to hire 10,000 more teachers in the coming year. These steps are taken in order to become profitable in FY23 and to avoid redundancies and duplication of roles.
The company also clarified in a statement that by leveraging technology better, five per cent of Byjyu’s 50,000- strong workforce is expected to be rationalized across product, content, and technology in a phased manner. The Bangalore-based company is set to also rework its marketing budget for more efficient growth.
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