Major Edtech company BYJU has signed in football legend Lionel “Leo” Messi as their first global brand ambassador of “Education For All”, the company’s social impact handle. The ed-tech company announced it on Friday.
BYJUS announced in a statement that the Paris Saint German’s star has been roped into to promote the cause of education.
“We are honoured and excited to collaborate with Lionel Messi as our global ambassador. He rose from the grassroots to become one of the most successful sportspersons ever. ” BYJU’S co-founder Divya Gokulnath said.
She also said that this was the opportunity BYJU’S Education For All (EFA) wanted to create. It aims at nearly 5.5 million children it currently supports.
“No one represents the power of enhancing human potential more than Lionel Messi,” Divya Gokulnath said further.
Messi has 450 million Instagram followers and football is the most-watched sport. So this step is surely going to help BYJU’S in promoting the cause.
Gokulnath said. “It is not surprising that the greatest player of all time is also the greatest learner of all time. I am sure this partnership will inspire millions of people around the world to dream bigger and learn better,”
It’s not the first deal between BYJUS and football, Earlier this year the Indian company became the official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar.
The Argentinian captain will be seen in campaigns promoting BYJU’s EFA.
Messi said that BYJUS has transformed the “career paths” of millions of students and he hopes to inspire young learners to go to the top and remain there.
BYJUS: Interesting move amidst “cost-cutting”
This move is interesting in the sense that BYJUS has been recently in news for laying off many of its employees for cost-cutting.
Chief executive officer (CEO), Byju Raveendran made an announcement earlier that the company is laying off its workforce of 50,000 by March next year 5% (2,500 employees), to lower costs.
The online learning platform reported a loss of 45.64 bn Rupees ($554.77 million) for fiscal 2021. This was majorly due to employee expenses and higher promotions.
A few days back it was reported that the online learning company was going to remove its 140 employees and close its operations in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. However, BYJUS changed its mind after the officials met with Kerala CM, Pinarayi Vijayan.
The employees had asked Kerala Labor Minister V Sivankutty to get involved in the matter.
