Byju’s this time: CEO of Byju’s laying off employees, likely to hire again after profit

India’s biggest edtech industry Byju’s provided a reality check to the public by sharing its 10-fold spike in losses. The industry which turned profitable in 2019, is now facing terrible losses. For this reason, Byju’s was made to terminate almost 2500 employees in order to cut costs and earn profit. 

The founder of Byju’s, Byju Raveendran wrote a letter to employees, an apology letter to the fired employees, that it is just a matter of time and that Byju’s will hire back once it comes into the platform again. 

Although further plans about paying the fired employees haven’t come out, the founder is sure about hiring them once the company is stable and it will be the company’s first priority. 

However, no exact date is provided to the employees. Therefore, it is still uncertain whether it’s just words or the company will actually hire them back. 

The CEO expressed his despair over the email that he was heartbroken when he had to lay off employees and expect forgiveness from them over the issue. 

But employees from Bengaluru and Kerala are revolting against the move, even accusing Byju’s for forcing them to resign. Raveendran, on the other hand, explained to the employees that 5 percent of the workforce will be laid off. The Human Resource (HR) of the company has been provided with the new set roles of hiring people into the company. 

According to Business Development Assessment (BDAs) policy, employees who failed to meet 70 percent of their weekly marks would be investigated and then terminated by managers and the HR team. According to some reports, appropriate action will be taken against the employees enclosing separation without a performance improvement programme (PIP). 

Byju’s reported biggest ever loss in 2021 which frightened most investors and the losses went up to Rs 4589 Crores. It recently raised about $250 million at an unchanged valuation of $22 billion. According to operation head Mrinal Mohit, at present, and for the coming year, it will have to focus from expansion to profitability. This was mentioned in a statement. 

According to reports, Byju’s would take a loan of ₹300 crores from its fully owned subsidiary, Aakash Educational Services at an interest rate of 7.50 percent per annum. Several operations in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala were shut down and as many as 170 employees resigned from their posts. 

The fall in revenue is however surprising for everyone as Byju’s is the leading tech industry, teaching and guiding thousands of budding students from different classes and streams.