As the Indian ed-tech market has drastically shrunk, BYJU has asked 300 staff at its Toppr learning management system and an additional 300 at computing website WhiteHat Jr to leave as part of a major reorganisation. BYJU’S said that it had finished “the incorporation of Toppr and has assimilated over 80% of its skilled employees into the BYJU’S community.”
Last year, BYJU’S bought Toppr for $150 million and then laid off most of its employees.
Professionals from the advertising and distribution sectors of Toppr were kept on after the transaction was finalized, but those from other sectors were requested to leave. A company representative said that the next step is “optimizing staff to rebalance business goals and improve our long-term development.”
More than 1,000 of the network’s members left after being invited to come back to work in April or May, and BYJU, the edtech company that obtained WhiteHat Jr. for $300 million, earlier this year dismissed about 300 workers. Many of the sacked workers this time were from the system’s marketing and computer code departments, and several of them had roots in Brazil.
The organization stated in a comment that it was “optimizing our workforce to expedite achievements and ideally prepare the organization for long-term success” to synchronize with its objectives.
The business declared the purchase procedure “is on pace and is scheduled for completion by August” in response to claims that it had postponed payment to investors as a component of its $1 billion takeovers of Aakash Professional Studies. The year before, BYJU spent $1 billion to buy Aakash, a company in Delhi that sells offline test prep programs.
The takeover of “Aakash is completely on schedule and all transactions are scheduled for completion by the appointed schedule, i.e., August 2022,” a corporation spokeswoman told IANS. The business representative went on to say, “Aakash is one of our best purchases to date, and we’re delighted to have them on board.”
A company representative said, “Along with most of our holding companies, we want to be in a great position to offer suitable training in all learning areas, from teaching children to preparing for exams and being happy at work.”
Through Aakash Centers, Aakash Academic Service includes self-study courses for school/board examinations, other tests, as well as entrance tests for medicine and engineering. The unicorn edtech company bought at least 10 other companies worth a total of about $2.5 billion last year.
Over 10,000 start-up workers nationwide have been let off, mostly due to edtech companies like Unacademy, WhiteHat Jr, Vedantu, FrontRow, Udayy, Lido Learning, and others. The global economy and the reopening of schools, colleges, and physical tuition centres have both had a big effect on the edtech industry.
Edtech: Rough Insights for the Post-Epidemic Period
The layoffs at BYJU-owned businesses are a part of a larger pattern; this year, it is projected that 4,000 people were terminated by edtech enterprises. More than 600 people have been let go by Vedantu and Unicorns Unacademy. In addition to Udayy and Lido Learning closing their doors, reports claim that Eruditus, Frontrow, Intact Metaversity, and Yellow Class have reduced their staff.
In the two years after the epidemic began, edtech businesses garnered more than $4 billion in venture capital funding, creating five unicorns, the most recent of which being Physics Wallah and Lead School. Edtech companies like BYJU and Unacademy are trying to make a transition to a hybrid version that has both a physical and a virtual presence to be successful after the pandemic.
What is happening on, BYJU?
Toppr and White Hat Jr. are two of BYJU’s 18–20 joint venture and acquisition projects, for which it has invested $3 billion. The edtech behemoth made at least 10 purchases just last year alone, with a total trade worth of almost $2.5 billion in 2021. Even more recently, BYJU said that the delay in releasing its financial results for FY21 and FY22 was due to the number of acquisitions it made over the past two years.
“We once again stress that FY21 saw many transactions, each of which had a unique financial method and the year. We have concluded the corporate reorganization, and this month (June), we will be submitting our financial reports,” a representative of the company told CNBC-TV18.
BYJU is continuing to pursue its objectives for worldwide expansion even though it is consolidating the businesses it has purchased. Great Learning, which is backed by BYJU, bought the Singapore-based Northwest Education for $100 million in May.
According to a Bloomberg investigation, BYJU is currently making a strong effort to expand into the US. By making a $1 billion offer for the edtech business 2U, which is listed on the NASDAQ. There have been rumours that BYJU is interested in Chegg, which is listed on the NYSE.
The announcement that BYJU is inclined to pay an additional $1 billion on purchase comes as the business has put off paying Blackstone. The test-prep company Aakash Educational Services, which it bought for $1 billion last year.
