On Wednesday, the Supreme Court issued a stay of the NCLAT ruling that had set aside the insolvency proceedings against the ed-tech major. This effectively enabled Byju Raveendran, the owner of the company, to regain control of the business.
The ruling of the NCLAT that approved the settlement of Byju’s dues with the BCCI amounts to INR 158.9 crore, but the highest court has placed that verdict on hold. This decision has put a strong blow on Byju’s.
The order was issued in response to a pleading by Glas Trust Company LLC, a creditor situated in the United States, against the verdict of the NCLAT. Glas Trust Company LLC asserts that they are owed one billion dollars by Byju’s.
Additionally, a panel that was led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud ordered the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to maintain a separate account for the INR 158.9 crore that it had received from Byju’s as a result of a settlement.
Insolvency proceedings against BYJU’S were halted on August 2 after the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) gave its approval to the settlement of INR 158.9 crore in dues with the BCCI.
How This Decision Can Bring More Trouble for BYJU’S
Following the decision of the Supreme Court, the insolvency proceedings against BYJU’S will resume. This will result in the ed-tech major, which was previously valued at USD 22 Billion, being placed under the control of an insolvency administrator chosen by the court.
At the beginning of this month, Byju Raveendran was able to restore control of the company after the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) dismissed the insolvency procedures that were being brought against the startup.
The cricket regulating body of India filed a complaint, stating that the company had not been paid its sponsorship dues, which resulted in the company being placed in the process of going bankrupt. After some time, the two parties reached a settlement on the issue, and an appeals tribunal put a stop to the insolvency procedures.
Why BYJU’S Is Going Through a Financial Crunch?
The fast growth and forceful strategy of acquisitions employed by BYJU’S have put a heavy burden on its financial resources. Many are worried about the company’s long-term viability because of its substantial need for outside finance, despite the fact that it has raised billions in cash.
Despite the initial boost to online education caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the market became saturated, which affected Byju’s growth trajectory.
Misleading advertising, unauthorised charges, and trouble getting your money back are just a few of the customer service issues that have plagued Byju’s. Not only have these problems damaged the company’s image, but they have also prompted lawsuits.
Members of the Enforcement Directorate and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) are among the regulatory agencies that are constantly monitoring the operations of the company.
Investigations have been initiated due to allegations of financial irregularities, such as disparities in revenue recognition and possible violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
At the heart of both the company’s success and its present problems has been Byju Raveendran, founder and CEO of Byju’s. Now that stakeholders and investors are demanding answers about the company’s performance, his leadership is under scrutiny.
The edtech company BYJU’S expressed optimism that it and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) may come to a mutually agreeable resolution after the latter filed a petition to initiate insolvency proceedings due to unpaid dues. Recently, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Bengaluru court accepted BCCI’s arguments in opposition to BYJU’S.
Our goal has always been to resolve the matter amicably with BCCI, and we remain optimistic that this ruling will not derail our efforts.” Meanwhile, a representative from BYJU’S stated that their legal team is now examining the order and would proceed with the appropriate measures to safeguard the company’s interests.
In October of last year, BCCI filed the plea in response to INR 158 crore in overdue payments. The Indian cricket squad was sponsored by BYJU’S under an agreement with the BCCI. A subsequent hearing was scheduled for November 15th, last year.
The NCLT acknowledged the plea and stated that it is indisputable that BYJU’S parent company, Think & Learn Private Limited, had used the BCCI’s services but had not paid.
BYJU’S Multiple Bankruptcy Cases
BYJU’S is currently involved in several bankruptcy lawsuits, both domestic and international, including the one initiated by the BCCI. The decision said that the Corporate Debtor (Think & Learn) admitted in these emails that they owed money and that default had already happened due to numerous requests for extensions of time.
The ruling permitting bankruptcy proceedings against Think & Learn imposes certain restrictions, including a 180-day embargo on the sale, transfer, or disposal of any of the company’s assets.
IBC Procedure
If a business files for bankruptcy protection under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), its creditors will gain control. While BYJU’s is amid the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP), all of its debts, including interest, will be frozen, and the transfer of any of its assets will be impossible. IBC also forbids the continuation of pending lawsuits against BYJU’S.
Within one week of receiving the NCLT bench’s order, Pankaj Srivastava must provide written permission for his appointment as Interim Resolution Professional (IRP). As per Section 17 of the IBC Act, 2016, if Srivastava’s nomination is confirmed, he will have complete control over the management of Think & Learn’s operations. The company’s board of directors would also be suspended. The bench of the NCLT issued an order directing the IRP to form a Committee of Creditors within 30 days of his appointment, after the compilation of all claims received against Think & Learn.
At the same time, in the fiscal year of 2024, tech investor Prosus spun off its 9.6% ownership in BYJU’S.
Peak XV Partners, General Atlantic, and Prosus are among the investors that have launched an “oppression and mismanagement” lawsuit against BYJU’S.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by BYJU’S.
Imagine you are sitting in a packed class, and the teacher is explaining an important concept. It appears that everyone else is understanding the teacher’s words and nodding their heads in unison, but this is not the same with you because you cannot understand an inch of the explanation going on in the class. Does this scenario resonate with you? Whether you accept it or not, such situations have happened at least once in a student’s life. Every person has his or her own pace of learning, and it is not possible for the teacher to take care of everyone in the class.
Thankfully, the Edtech sector is growing fast enough to fill this gap. And talking about EdTech in India, one name that can’t be missed is BYJU. Read on to find out how an engineer’s passion for teaching led him to start the world’s most valued ed-tech company.
BYJU’S was founded in 2011 by Byju Raveendran, and BYJU’S The Learning App was launched in 2015. BYJU’S is now valued at about $8.4 billion.
Let’s go through the Exciting Journey of BYJU’S and also discover more about BYJU’s Success Story, History, Founders, Funding, Revenue, Competitors, Acquisitions, and more.
The Bangalore-based educational technology platform BYJU’s is an online tutoring and coaching firm that was started in the year 2011 and runs on a freemium model. BYJU’s parent company is ‘Think and Learn Pvt Ltd’. The main aim of BYJU’s is to provide coaching through online video lectures for students of class 1 to class 12 and also for people who prepare for competitive exams like IIT – JEE, NEET, CAT, GRE, and GMAT.
BYJU’s – the Learning appwas launched in the year 2015 and has been a huge success. It is used by more than 15 million students all over the world and has 9,00,000 paid subscribers. The app helps the students to learn on their own rather than rely on spoon-feeding. Its approach combines the re-invention of learning, world-class teachers, proven pedagogical methods, and personalized learning.
Byju Raveendran is the founder of BYJU’s Classes, the education Technology firm.
Byju Raveendran
Byju Raveendran – Founder, BYJU’S
Byju Raveendran, BYJU’s founder, and CEO,was born in 1980 in Azhikode, Kerela. He has a B.Tech (mechanical engineering) from Government Engineering College in Kannur, Kerela. Before starting BYJU’s, Byju Raveendran was working in a multinational shipping firm as a service engineer. However, teaching was his passion and inspired him to start BYJU’s.
Besides being an entrepreneur and teacher, Byju Raveendran is also an expert sportsperson, active in six different sports. He played football, cricket, table tennis, and badminton at the university level. Popularly known as Byju sir among his students, Byju cleared CAT twice with 100 percentile. He never joined any IIM, though.
Divya Gokulnath
Divya Gokulnath – Co-founder, BYJU’S
An Indian entrepreneur and educator, Divya Gokulnath is the wife of Byju Raveendran and a co-founder and director at Byju’s. Divya was a student of National College Jayanagar and R.V College of Engineering, from where she completed her B.Tech in Biotechnology after which she decided to co-found Byju’s in 2011 with her husband.
Rachna Bahadur was appointed as the Senior VP of Byju’s on December 10, 2021, who will look after the overall planning, strategies, and roadmap of Byju’s both in new and existing markets. Rachna was previously a Partner at Bain & Company.
Flaunt your startup with StartupTalky
800+ stories, thousands of founders, and millions of visitors. Want to be the next?
StartupTalky is where founders, entrepreneurs, startups and businesses hang out and look up to for inspiration. If you have the means, we have the medium! Inviting founders and startups who are building sustainable solutions from ground zero! Startups who run the show, StartupTalky will let the world know!
Coming from Azhikode, a small village in Kerala, Byju Raveendran was an engineer with a shipping company based in the UK. While he was working, he started to help his friends prepare for the CAT exam, an entrance exam for getting into the best business schools in India. To test himself, Byju also gave the exam and secured 100 percentile! He did not join any of the IIMs but started teaching students for their mathematics exams.
Initially, he took mathematics workshops for free and then started charging a fee when he was confident about his prowess. At one point his workshops were so popular that more than 20000 students participated in one such workshop. In the year 2009, he started to record videos of the workshops he organized.
His former students who graduated from the IIMs encouraged him to start BYJU’s classes. ‘Think and Learn Pvt Ltd’ was then formed to create content for school students. He launched Byju’s – The Learning App in 2015, and the app was downloaded by more than 5.5 million people in the first year itself.
BYJU’s – Name, Logo, and Tagline
BYJU’s tagline is “Fall in love with learning“. Byju’s got its name from its founder’s first name.
Here’s the BYJU’S logo below:
BYJU’S Logo
BYJU’s – Business Model and Revenue Model
Byju’s works on a freemium business model wherein it offers customers both complimentary and paid (premium) services. The company asks the students to submit their details on its application or website and offers them a free 15 days trial. Once the free trial is exhausted, the student has to buy the courses from BYJU’s to access the complete content. The company provides one-to-one mentoring to its subscribers and also provides feedback to the child’s parents. BYJU’s also offers classroom coaching in Noida, Gurgaon, and some other areas.
BYJU’s generates revenue in three ways:
The first one is through the app. After the free trial of 15 days, students have to purchase the courses to continue their educational journey on BYJU’s. The app offers a variety of test series, courses, etc. which actually compels people to make the purchase.
BYJU’s offers electronic tablets that customers need to procure when they buy the course of their choice. This tablet has videos, tests, practice questions, quizzes, etc. pertaining to that course.
The third revenue generation mechanism is through classroom teaching. These classes are restricted to only a few cities.
In 2016, BYJU’s became the first Asian company to receive funding from the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, a philanthropic initiative by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan. It was back in 2018 when BYJU’s turned into a unicorn, becoming the first Indian edtech company to join the prestigious unicorn club of Indian startups.
During the funding round in March 2022, BYJU’s successfully concluded a round worth $800 million. Notable investors, including Sumeru Ventures, Vitruvian Partners, and BlackRock, infused $400 million, while the founder of BYJU’s, Byju Raveendran, contributed the remaining $400 million. However, the closing of this funding round faced challenges in July 2022 when Sumeru and Oxshott did not transfer their due amount of $250 million, citing macroeconomic reasons.
Byju Raveendran, the CEO of BYJU’s, holds approximately 25% of the company’s stakes, while Divya Gokulnath and the management team possess around 4% stakes.
In June 2021, BYJU’s secured a funding round that valued the edtech giant at $16.5 billion, surpassing Paytm as the most valued startup in India. This was followed by an increase in valuation to $22 billion in July 2022 after the successful funding round. However, in May 2023, BlackRock cut BYJU’s valuation by 62%, resulting in a new valuation of $8.4 billion. This followed a previous valuation cut to $11.5 billion by BlackRock, just one month earlier.
The table below covers BYJU’s funding details:
Date
Stage
Amount
Lead Investors
May 13, 2023
Debt Financing
$250 Million
Davidson Kempner
October 27, 2022
Debt Financing
$36.45 Million
Aakash Educational Services
October 17, 2022
Private Equity
$250 Million
Qatar Investment Authority
March 11, 2022
Private Equity
$800 Million
Byju Raveendran, Sumeru Ventures, Vitruvian Partners and BlackRock
November 8, 2021
Debt Financing
$1.2 Billion
–
October 4, 2021
Series F
$286.61 Million
Oxshott Capital Partners
September 8, 2021
–
$150 Million
Asmaan Ventures, Mirae Asset, ARK Ncore
June 21, 2021
Series F
$50 Million
IIFL and Maitri Edtech
June 12, 2021
Series F
$350 Million
UBS Group, Eric Yuan, Blackstone
March 29, 2021
Series F
$460 Million
MC Global Edtech Investment Holdings
September 8, 2020
Private Equity Round
$500 Million
Silver Lake
August 26, 2020
Venture Round
$122 Million
DST Global
June 26, 2020
Venture Round
$100 Million
Bond
January 9, 2020
Private Equity Round
$200 Million
Tiger Global Management
July 10, 2019
Venture Round
$150 Million
Qatar Investment Authority
March 22, 2019
Private Equity Round
$31 Million
General Atlantic & Tencent Holdings
December 11, 2018
Venture Round
$ 540 Million
Prosus & Naspers
August 2017
Corporate Round
$40 Million
Tencent Holdings
March 2017
Series F
$30 Million
Verlinvest
December 2016
Series E
$15 Million
IFC Venture Capital Group & InnoVen Capital
September 2016
Series D
$50 Million
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative & Sequoia Capital India
March 2016
Series C
$75 Million
Sequoia Capital India & Sofina
In March 2017, a case study on BYJU’s was featured in Harvard Business School’s curriculum. It is indeed one of the biggest achievements for any company from a non-monetary perspective, and that is when Byju’s started operating on a global platform.
BYJU’s – IPO
Byju’s is eyeing an IPO within the next 8-10 months. Byju Raveendran-led edtech unicorn is India’s second-highest valued startup, which has already been popular in the startup ecosystem for its fundraises and acquisitions and is currently looking for an IPO at over $16.8 bn. According to the further progress in the IPO of Byju’s the company has now decided to merge the special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) of Churchill Capital, a global strategic advisory firm, and raise around $4 bn. Such an IPO round would value the company at over $48 bn, as per the reports of December 16, 2021. The BYJU’s IPO is set to be conducted in the next 18 months, as of July 7, 2022, at a valuation between $40-45 bn.
BYJU’s – Challenges faced by BYJU’s
As said by Byju Raveendran, the founder of BYJU’s, converting the students to paid subscribers after the free trial ends is a major challenge for BYJU’s. The company is also working towards expanding to other English-speaking countries, and finding suitable partners to assist with this expansion is the second challenge.
Byju’s Owing Money to BCCI
Byju’s, which has been the jersey sponsor for the Indian cricket team, allegedly owes nearly Rs 86.21 crore in dues to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). These news reports have been rejected by Byju Raveendran’s wife and the Co-founder of Byju’s Divya Gokulnath, who have also pointed out that the cricketing board of India has also rejected such news.
It originally acquired the rights from OPPO, the smartphone manufacturing firm in 2019, and the last deal of the edtech major with BCCI expired in March 2022. However, both parties have agreed to extend their partnership in April 2022, which will continue till the 2023 ODI World Cup. The latest deal was worth $55 mn.
Byju’s Under Government Scanner for Misselling Courses
Byju’s has been identified by the Department of Consumer Affairs among the edtech companies that missell courses. Several edtech companies like Unacademy, UpGrad, Great Learning, WhiteHat Jr., and more joined the meeting with the India Edtech Consortium (IEC) on June 24, 2022, where they were drawn attention to the numerous consumer complaints against these companies, a large number of which were against Byju’s and its subsidiaries. Divya Gokulnath of Byju’s fame shared a detailed action plan to address consumer complaints. Besides, the most valued startup in India has also been advised to work with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) for the claims that it makes in its ads.
BYJU’s – Competitors/Alternatives
People are rapidly moving toward digitization and adopting e-learning because of this revolution, and many other companies with a model similar to BYJU’s are focusing on ed-tech. BYJU’s major competitors:
BYJU’s has acquired a total number of 19 companies to date. With a total of 10 acquisitions under its belt in 2021, Byju’s had spent over $2.4 Bn owing to its aggressive acquisition spree, which the company has embraced eyeing a unilateral market. Byju’s acquired GeoGebra, an Austria-based Math learning tool startup on December 8, 2021, in a deal that was later recorded at around $100 mn. Founded by Markus Hohenwwarter in 2001, GeoGebra fuses geometry, algebra, spreadsheets, graphing, statistics, and calculus on a platform that is easy to use and efficient. Besides, it boasts of having a community of 100 Mn+ learners across 195+ countries. As a platform, GeoGebra aims to make math learning fun and visually appealing. This acquisition will, thus, make Byju’s Math learning programs interesting and interactive.
Tynker was the last company that Byju’s acquired before this present acquisition on September 16, 2021. Byju’s previously acquired the e-learning app for competitive exam preparations, Toppr, and Edtech app, Great Learning on July 24, 2021, and then Whodat. Great Learning again acquired the recruitment automation company, Superset on February 28, 2022. Byju’s Great Learning acquired Northwest Executive Education on May 10, 2022, for around $100 mn, in a cash and stock deal. This acquisition would help both companies further their offerings to markets like India, the US, Europe, and Latin America.
Byju’s was in final talks of acquiring the online tutoring platform, Vedantu. The Edtech gianthad already displayed a vibrant year of acquisition so doubts were relatively lesser on the same. According to the reports, the Byju Raveendran-led company had already offered an amount of $700-800 millionfor the deal, which was pending necessary regulatory approvals. Vedantuhas been among the most prominent rivals of Byju’s, and if the deal fleshed out, it would have been another feather to the cap of Byju’s, being the fourth major acquisition of the companyso far. However, Byju’s acquisition of Vedantu was dismissed by the co-founder and chief executive of Vedantu, Vamsi Krishna, who said that any talks of merger or acquisition with Byju’s are “100% inaccurate,” as per the reports on August 6, 2021.
Though the Edtech major has reportedly reached out to Unacademy and Vedantu and offered them around $1 billion last year, none of the deals has materialized this year. However, Byju’s was then in talks to acquire Tynker, a coding platform for kids from the US. The talks were at their initial stage, with no confirmation of the figures of the deal, when reported on August 17, 2021. Byju’s has been ultimately successful in materializing yet another acquisition, where it has acquired Tynker on September 16, 2021, for $200 mn. Tynker Founder and CTO, Srinivas Mandyam has stated that the platform is so popular in the US that 1 in 3 schools already use it in the States. This will surely give Byju’s an extra edge for its expansion in North America. Byju coding class along with Tynker and WhiteHat Jr. is meant to be something big in the long run.
Possible Acquisitions Ahead for Byju’s
The Edtech decacorn is now looking to acquire Hello English, according to the news dated November 22, 2021, confirmed by sources close to the company. The sources on request for anonymity have also claimed that the deal will reportedly be valued at $25 mn. Furthermore, they added that the term sheet has already been signed.
Hello English [formerly known as CultureAlley] is an eight-year-old cloud-based language learning platform that extends the facility of learning multiple languages for users including English, Chinese, Portuguese, Turkish, Nepali, Indonesian, Thai, Arabic, Malay, Urdu, Malay, Bengali, Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and more. The acquisition of Hello English would be a landmark step and will signal the foray of the Edtech tech into the language learning space.
Byju’s is also reported to be acquiring Superset and is currently involved in the late-stage conversation to finalize the terms, according to sources close to the companies on request of anonymity. Superset is a campus recruitment platform from Bangalore that aims to streamline the campus hiring process, thereby making placements an easy affair for colleges, universities, and companies. It is also alleged that the Superset founding duo, Naman Agrawal and Pranjal Goswami will also join Byju’s if the deal takes shape.
The Byju Raveendran-led edtech company might acquire 2U Inc, a NASDAQ-listed edtech firm for close to $1 bn, which might stand as the largest acquisition in the space.
Byju’s Completed Aakash Acquisition
Byju’s owned Aakash Institute back in January 2021, in a deal worth $1 bn, which was to be completed in June 2022, but the company is deferring the payment and have reportedly sought a two-month extension already, as per the reports dated June 29, 2022. Blackstone, which is Aakash’s main investor and others are to be paid partly in cash and partly in Byju’s stocks, as per the reports. Many other investors also received partial payments in 2021 as reported by the firm. The Byju’s-Aakash deal, which was billed as the largest deal in the history of the Indian edtech space, declared previously that after the deal, Aakash Chaudhry and the Chaudhry family, who are the owners of the institute would completely exit the company. On the other hand, Blackstone, which owns 37.5% of the institute would be paid in June 2022. However, Byju’s spokesperson has denied the reports of Bloomberg and mentioned that Byju’s acquisition of Aakash would be completed on the mentioned date, which is in August 2022. Byju’s declared that it has completed Aakash’s pending payment as per the reports dated July 4, 2022. Via a statement, Byju’s spokesperson mentioned the closing of the Aakash deal, and that the audited financial results will be announced in the next 10 days. However, it is revealed on July 12, 2022, that Byju’s has a pending payment of close to $200 mn to the US-based private equity giant Blackstone Inc., which reportedly needs to be paid by August 2022.
Here are the details of all BYJU’s Acquisitions:
Date
Company
About Company
Value
January 2017
Vidyartha
A customised learning guidance platform for K8-K12 students
$6.71 million
July 2017
TutorVista
Online tutoring services platform
Undisclosed
July 2017
Edurite
Audio-visual educational content provider
Undisclosed
July 2018
Math Adventures
A platform that aids kids to learn math in a fun way
Undisclosed
January 2019
Osmo
Platform offers educational courses with the use of games, videos and other materials
$120 million
August 2020
WhiteHat Jr.
Offers online coding classes to school-going students in India and the US
$300 million
September 2020
LabInApp
Offers lab-like simulations for science students on a mobile app.
Undisclosed
January 2021
Aakash Educational Services Ltd
Helps students get admission to engineering and medical schools by providing coaching for entrance exams
$1 Billion
February 18, 2021
Scholr
Mumbai-based Ai-enabled online education platform
$2.4 million
May 29, 2021
HashLearn
Online coaching platform for competitive exams
Undisclosed
July 13, 2021
Gradeup
India’s largest online exam preparation website
Undisclosed
July 13, 2021
Toppr
Online learning app offering training in JEE Main, NEET, JEE Advanced, CBSE and other school exams
Undisclosed
July 21, 2021
Epic
California-based reading application that focuses on books, eBooks, learning, and educational technology
$500 million
July 24, 2021
Great Learning
Edtech platform that offers career-relevant courses from world-class universities
Undisclosed
August 4, 2021
Whodat Tech
A spatial mapping, computer vision and augmented reality startup based out of Bangalore
Undisclosed
September 16, 2021
Tynker
Tynker is a US-based coding platform that empowers kids to learning programming and code.
$200 million
December 8, 2021
GeoGebra
GeoGebra is a Austria-based math learning platform that aims to empower math learning and make it easy and interactive.
$100 mn
BYJU’s – Growth and Revenue
BYJU’s as a startup is pretty innovative and has garnered massive success in the market. It follows rigorous advertising strategies. The company has captured the Indian market and has established its presence in the Middle East as well. BYJU’s intends to expand to the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and other global markets. To expand its footprints in the USA, BYJU’s acquired US-based learning platform Osmo in January 2019. The company also tied up with Disney to launch an early learning app for classes 1-3.
BYJU’s was also in the news recently as it took a positive step during the coronavirus crisis. Since schools in different parts of India were shut down due to the coronavirus outbreak, BYJU’s made its learning app free for the students till the end of April 2020 so that students could enjoy uninterrupted learning.
BYJU’s Collaborated with NITI Aayog
Byju Raveendran-led Edtech giant partnered with the Indian government’s public policy think tank. This partnership aimed to foster a quality learning experience through tech-driven learning programs, which will be extended to children across 112 “aspirational districts” of the country. The “aspirational districts”, as mentioned, are the most developmentally challenged regions of the country across sectors like health, nutrition, education, agriculture, skill development, water resources, infrastructure, and more.
This partnership will also be responsible for setting a dedicated working group up to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the program in full, according to a statement released on September 17, 2021.
This collaboration will be comprised of 2 main components:
Byju’s Career Plus program will offer high-quality coaching to around 3000 students of Classes 11 and 12, who are aspiring to appear for NEET and JEE.
Another voluntary program will allow school-going children between Classes (6-12) to avail themselves of scholastic content from Byju’s Learning App for 3 years, as per the social impact initiative undertaken by the edtech giant named, Education for all.
On this, Byju’s Founder and CEO, Byju Raveendran said,
“Through our ‘Education for All’ programme, we have been empowering and impacting millions of children across the country, and by partnering with NITI Aayog, our efforts are being strengthened further.”
Byju’s to launch a new edtech business in the MENA region
Byju’s has partnered with Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) to launch a new edtech business and R&D centre in Doha, Qatar. The entity that will be built as a result of the deal, is expected to drive research and innovation and create cutting-edge learning solutions that will be personalised for the Middle East, and North African students, those who belong to the MENA region.
The CEO and Founder of Byju’s, Byju Raveendran, and the CEO of QIA, Mansoor Al-Mahmoud, have signed an MOU in the presence of the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the State of Qatar and chairman of QIA, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, and the representatives of BYJU’S, in the recent 2022 Doha Forum.
Furthermore, BYJU’s aims to identify and provide test preparation coaching to 3,000 meritorious students of classes 11 and 12, who aspire to appear for NEET and JEE, with the help of the Aakash+BYJU’S Career-Plus program. Additionally, the Edtech giant will also offer academic content with the help of BYJU’S Learning App for the school children studying in classes 6-12 standards for three years, under its social impact initiative called ‘Education for All’.
BYJU’s Revenue
Although BYJU’s has not yet disclosed its financial numbers for FY22, the company has claimed that it achieved approximately Rs 10,000 crore in gross revenues during that fiscal year. However, according to the annual financial statements filed with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), BYJU’s operating revenue showed a modest growth of only 4% to Rs 2,280 crore in FY21, compared to Rs 2,189 crore in FY20. In contrast, the company experienced a significant surge in losses, which increased nearly 15 times to Rs 4,564 crore in FY21, as compared to Rs 305 crore in FY20.
Byju’s has started offering a hybrid model where the students can embrace physical/offline education centers for their classes, as of October 2021. The all-new hybrid model of education has already been kickstarted, the success of which would make the Edtech startup scale it up around the nation. The hybrid learning centers would be dubbed, “BYJU’S Learning Centre” and would initially concentrate on Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Mathematics.
Byju’s appears to have come full circle. This is because after switching to the online mode of learning, acquiring companies, garnering fame, and becoming India’s most valued edtech startup, it is now planning to launch its offline coaching center, which would be named Byju’s Tuition Center (BTC), and would pave for its foray into blended/hybrid learning. This new initiative is planned to benefit the students between Classes (4-10) and has prominently scaled this far mainly after the acquisition of Aakash Educational Services.
BYJU’s – Partnerships
Byju’s is known as the BCCI partner and will be remaining on the jersey of the Indian cricket team as it renewed its sponsorship with the Indian cricketing board for the upcoming 18 months at a deal price of around $55 mn. The new term of Byju’s started after the end of India’s South Africa tour. The Byju’s-BCCI partnership was extended until the ODI World Cup 2023.
The edtech giant’s contract ended in March 2022, post which it applied for the extension. Byju’s bought the rights of IPL sponsorship from Oppo in 2019. Some other prominent partnerships of Byju’s include:
Byju’s and Google Partnered to offer a “Learning Solution” for schools.
Byju’s collaborated with NITI Aayog to extend free education in 112 districts.
Byju’s partnered with Intel to invest in and enhance student-teacher relationships.
The edtech giant collaborated with Akshaya Patra Foundation to help needy students get smart classrooms.
BYJU’s – Lay Off
In October 2023, BYJU’S laid off about 600 workers from its marketing and content departments. Under the direction of new India CEO Arjun Mohan, the ailing edtech behemoth is currently undergoing restructuring, which includes layoffs.
BYJU’s – Future Plans
Byju’s is currently planning to focus more on the Byju’s Tuition Center (BTC) by investing up to $200 mn on the same over the next 12 to 18 months, as of February 2022. Signing up around 1 mn students for this model is the aim of Byju’s over the next 2 years. The Byju Raveendran-led edtech giant is currently running this product as a pilot in around 23 cities and 80 centers and is willing to take the same to 500 centres across 200 cities by the end of 2022. Byju’s is also looking forward to a public listing ahead in the next 18 months. It is also looking to acquire prominent companies like the NASDAQ-listed 2U Inc.
FAQs
When did BYJU’s Start?
BYJU’s was founded in the year 2011.
What is BYJU’s Tagline?
BYJU’s tagline is “Fall in love with learning“
Why is BYJU’s Successful?
BYJU’s functions on a Freemium Business Model. The approach of BYJU’s in providing knowledge with highly creative visual content, one-on-one learning, and other facilities has led to its success. BYJU’s has been able to rightly blend technology and knowledge to impart knowledge to today’s generation.
Who is the Owner of BYJU’s?
Byju Raveendran founded BYJU’s in 2011. Think and Learn Private Ltd is the parent organization of BYJU’s.
Who is Byju Raveendran’s wife?
Byju Raveendran’s wife is Divya Gokulnath, who is an entrepreneur, and educator along with being the Co-founder and Director at Byju’s.
What is the Byju’s learning app?
The Edtech giant boasts of the BYJU’S Learning App, which is designed to offer academic content for school-going children ranging from class 6 – 12 for three years. This has been decided under its social impact initiative ‘Education for All’.
How much is BYJU’s Revenue?
BYJU’s operating revenue showed a modest growth of only 4% to Rs 2,280 crore in FY21, compared to Rs 2,189 crore in FY20.
Who are the competitors of BYJU’s?
BYJU’s major competitors are Meritnation.com, Vedantu, Teachable, Khan Academy, Simplilearn, Schoolwise, and Toppr.
How to become a teacher in Byju’s?
Becoming a teacher in Byju’s is not as hard as you think. To become a teacher, firstly, you need to record a video of yourself where you will have to teach any concept in front of the camera for around 15 minutes. Next, you need to record another clear video of yourself where you will have to solve 2 questions papers of the subject grade that you have applied for.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Age of Learning.
Education has become crucial more than ever. Proper education helps children develop critical skills, including mental agility, decision-making, and logical thinking.
With the advancement in technology, the world is moving to digital learning. Now students can access digital learning materials and interact with tutors and peers online while enjoying flexible, engaging, and creative courses. Edtech platforms provide more personalized and self-directed learning through exciting activities, games, materials, and programs.
Age of Learning is an edtech company that provides a comprehensive and engaging online education curriculum for pre-k, kindergarten, elementary, and middle school programs. Read further to know more details.
Age of Learning is the leading technology provider that blends education’s best practices, advanced technology, and insightful creativity to provide compelling educational experiences to children across numerous countries.
An extensive team of education experts develops the company’s research-based digital education programs and content that have proven efficacy in elevating kids’ learning gains. The company has helped educate over 50 million children across the United States and other countries.
Age of Learning is one of the most renowned California-based companies in the edtech industry. The term edtech is short for ‘education technology’ and constitutes using computers, technology, computer programs, and educational systems to provide education and learning to students and workers.
The Edtech industry is home to the companies involved in creating digital platforms and content for delivering the best education curriculum and learning to people. In 2022, the global edtech market was valued at $123.4 billion and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 13.6% from 2023-2030.
Apart from the Age of Learning, BYJU’S, Coursera, Instructure, and Knewton are the top companies in the edtech industry.
Age of Learning – Founders & Team
Doug Dohring – Founder, Age of Learning
Doug Dohring is the founder of the company. He is a California-based entrepreneur who led multiple companies to success during the past three decades. Before founding Age of Learning, Doug founded NeoPets, Inc., in 2010. Additionally, he founded The Dohring Company in 1986.
Age of Learning was set up in 2007 by Doug Dohring and is presently led by CEO Paul Candland. Its first flagship product, ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy, was launched in 2010. Over 30 million kids use it by completing more than 6.8 billion learning activities.
What Is ABCmouse.com?
The company collaborated with the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago in 2015. The main goal behind this collaboration was to develop a series of web-based assessments.
In 2019, the company launched Adventure Academy- the first massively multiplayer online (MMO) game and app, helping children to learn. It launched The Age of Learning Foundation, a charitable organization to provide the company’s digital learning products free of cost to kids worldwide.
The company’s mission is to help children worldwide build a strong foundation for academic success and a lifelong love for learning. Moreover, its primary goal is to create a world of opportunity for kids worldwide through education, both today and in the future.
Age of Learning – Revenue Model
The company works on a subscription-based revenue model. It implies that Age of Learning’s primary source of revenue is the fee paid by the users to subscribe and access its educational website and mobile applications.
Age of Learning – Products and Services
Age of learning’s expanding portfolio of educational products comprises ABCmouse English, Adventure Academy, and the personalized and adaptive learning programs- My Math Academy and My Reading Academy.
Age of Learning – Challenges Faced
In September 2020, Age of Learning settled a Federal Trade Commission complaint alleging that it was involved in deceptive marketing and billing practices. The complaint was focused on the 2015-2018 period; during this time, tens of thousands of consumers were affected, constituting 2% of ABCmouse subscribers. Although it didn’t admit the guilt, it agreed to pay $10 million to settle charges and avoid a prolonged dispute.
Age of Learning – Funding and Investors
Age of Learning has undertaken 5 funding rounds in which it has raised a total of $531.5 million. Its latest funding round – Series C Round, was conducted on June 29, 2021, and raised a total of $300 million. 5 investors fund the company, and the main ones are Tecent, Qatar Investment Authority, and TPG.
Date
Round
Number of Investors
Money Raised
Lead Investor
June 29, 2021
Series C
4
$300 million
TPG
August 15, 2020
Series B
1
$50 million
Tecent
May 3, 2016
Series A
1
$150 million
ICONIQ Capital
January 12, 2018
Venture Round
1
–
The Rise Fund
April 12, 2012
Debt Financing
–
$16.5 million
–
June 17, 2011
Debt Financing
–
$15 million
PayPal Ventures
Age of Learning – Mergers and Acquisitions
Age of Learning and Rakuten came together to establish a Joint Venture.
Age of Learning – Patents and Trademark
Age of Learning has obtained multiple patents, including the original patent for a vertically integrated educational system. Currently, it has 21 registered trademarks categorized into the ‘Education and Entertainment’ class.
Age of Learning – Growth
The current valuation of the company stands at $3 billion. Moreover, its monthly website visit growth rate is reported to be 41.82%. Age of Learning has over 651,000 monthly app downloads, with ABCmouse and Adventure Academy the most popular ones.
Age of Learning – Partners
Age of Learning has partnered with:
White House
The Boys & Girls Clubs of America
The U.S. Department of Housing and Development
The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading
Digital Promise
Teletica
Boston Children’s Hospital
Age of Learning – Awards and Achievements
The company is proudly recognized for the excellence of its products and received several national awards for education, parenting, and media organizations. Some of the awards it garnered are:
2020 American Business Awards – Gold Stevie Winner for Adventure Academy in the Kids & Family Category
2020 American Business Awards – Gold Stevie Winner for Adventure Academy in the Education: Game-based Curriculum Solution Category
2020 Tech Advocate Awards – Winner for Adventure Academy in the Best Gamification App Category
2020 NAPPA Award for ABCmouse
2020 NAPPA Award for Adventure Academy
Age of Learning – Competitors
Age of Learning has ranked 3rd among its 1344 active competitors. Some of its main competitors are:
What age range of students does Age of Learning cater to?
Age of Learning caters to pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, elementary, and middle school students, covering the age range of 2 to 8 years old.
What subjects are covered in Age of Learning’s curriculum?
Age of Learning’s curriculum covers a wide range of subjects including language arts, reading, math, science, social studies, art, and music. They also offer learning resources such as puzzles, books, and games to enhance learning and engagement.
What types of multimedia resources are included in Age of Learning’s online curriculum?
Age of Learning’s online curriculum includes a variety of multimedia resources such as interactive games, puzzles, books, videos, animations, songs, and art activities.
Who are the competitors of Age of Learning?
There are various competitors of Age of Learning which invlude –
The startup industry in India is growing faster than we could have imagined. They are now paving a new way for the future of India. Some popular startups that caught the eyes of everyone in the past few years are Zomato, BYJUs, Nykaa, and more. These are living proof of the evolution of startups in India.
These startups have been able to provide solutions to many of our problems. Along with this, they have been able to make huge progress for themselves as well. The startups in India are now generating a great amount of revenue and an increase in terms of their valuation.
The last two years have been full of ups and downs. The time has been mixed with old and new ideas. Many businesses could not cope well during the pandemic. On the other hand, many were able to reach their prime time. The Indian startup industry has grown in the past two years like never before. Startups like BYJU, Zomato, Nykaa, and more made India proud by entering the unicorn club.
Thanks to technology, continuous innovations, and passion for entrepreneurship, India is now the third-largest home for unicorn startups in the world with almost 100+ unicorn startups already established and many more are on the way to becoming unicorn startups.
Startups in India can secure a strong foot in India now due to new terms and policies installed by the government as well as the development faced by the Indian startup ecosystem. The startups in India have become the most potential eye-catchers for investors. With great funding at proper times, startups have been able to progress at a faster pace.
Here is the list of all Indian Unicorn Startup with their revenue, profit, and valuation:
Nykaa’s CEO and Founder Falguni Sanjay Nayar- StartupTalky
It is an Indian e-commerce platform launched in the year 2012 by Falguni Nayar. The company sells its products through three channels- website, app, and offline stores. It offers a wide variety of beauty, wellness, and fashion products.
Nayar made her company the first Indian unicorn startup led by a woman in 2020. The Firm Nykaa has revenue of INR 2,440 crores, in 2021. It has also announced revenue of INR 3,773 crores FY 2022.
This year in Q2 FY23, Nykaa’s net profit has reached 344% Y-o-Y to Rs. 5.2 crore. The company has also reported a 39% increase in its revenue which is Rs.1230 cr.
2. Swiggy
Revenue: INR 2,547 Crores in FY2021
Swiggy’s CEO Sriharsha Majety- StartupTalky
It is an online food ordering and delivery platform based in India. The Swiggy startup was started in the year 2014. The platform’s services are active in more than five hundred Indian cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, etc.
The platform has taken a tech approach to handle logistics and provide solutions to customer demands. Swiggy generated revenue of Rs. 2,547 cr in FY21. This number was a 23% drop from their previous financial year 2020.
3. Zomato
Revenue: INR 4192.4 crore in FY2022
Zomato – A food delivery startup
It is an online food ordering and delivery company founded in the year 2008. From menus to reviews the platform provides you with all the information about its partnered restaurants and gets your delicious food delivered to your doorstep.
It was the first Indian startup to make its debut in the stock market. The Zomato Unicorn is considered one of the most successful startups in India with a revenue of INR 4192.4 crores, in Financial Year 2022. It has also announced its gross order value of INR 5,500 crores in Q3 FY 2022.
The above graph shows India’s Unicorn surge with its aggregate valuation.
4. BYJU’S
Revenue: INR 3,039.45 Crores in FY 2022
BYJU’S – The ed-tech startup
It is a global ed-tech startup founded in India in the year 2011. The platform is known to provide adaptive, engaging, and effective learning solutions to its students around the world. Online coaching has the school’s curriculum as well as training for exams like JEE, IAS, GRE, etc.
This education startup earned the status of the 13th largest unicorn in the world as per CB insights in December 2021. The startup BYJU’s had revenue of INR 3039.4 crores as of FY 2022.
5. Paytm
Revenue: INR 4,846 crores in FY 2022
Paytm – The Financial service providing startup
It is an Indian multinational technology startup that provides a digital ecosystem for consumers and merchants. Paytm was founded in the year 2010. The company offers payment services, commerce and cloud services, and financial services.
It enables users to make quick and safe UPI payments, book movie tickets, EMI payments, and more. This top Indian startup has a revenue of INR 3,187.6 crores for FY21. It has also generated revenue of INR 4846 crores in FY2022.
OYO – A full-stack technology providing a global platform startup
It is an Indian multinational online travel agency for homes and hotels. It was founded in the year 2012. The OYO platform offers hotel rooms at affordable rates all across South Asia. It also offers services like complimentary breakfast services, holiday packages, rewards, etc.
The platform has made travel experiences for people easy and reasonable. It has a revenue of INR 4,157 crores, in 2021.
7. Udaan
Revenue: INR 8450 Crores in FY 2022
Udaan – A trade processing startup
It is a network-centric B2B e-commerce platform founded in the year 2016 in India. The startup helps traders, manufacturers, and wholesalers to connect directly in one place. Udaan startup also facilitates secure payments and smooth logistics.
Udaan has been successful in solving the problems of trade for businesses across India. It has a revenue of INR 5,919 Crores in FY 21. However, in FY22 Udaan has shown Rs.8450 cr in revenue with a loss reaching Rs.3030 cr which is 22.1% more compared to the FY21 loss of Rs. 2482.
8. Digit Insurance
Revenue: INR 5,268 Crores in FY 2022
Digit Insurance – An insurance-providing startup
It is an operator of an insurance brokerage firm founded in the year 2016 in India. The Digit Insurance company offers insurance for commercial and non-commercial vehicles, property, and travel.
Digit Insurance is one of the leading insurance companies in the nation enabling clients to make informed decisions and get themselves insured. It has a revenue of INR 5268 crores in FY22.
9. PharmEasy
Revenue: INR 4363 Crores in FY21
Pharmeasy – The online drug/medicine delivery startup
PharmEasy is an Indian e-pharmacy startup, founded in the year 2015. PharmEasy sells medicine and healthcare products, along with that it also connects local clinics to medical stores for health equipment supply.
In order to expand business PharmEasy has started connecting doctors to patients online and jumped into Lab testing operations now. Though PharmEasy total revenue has increased 48% to Rs 6,461.1 crore in FY22 from Rs 4,363.2 crore in FY21.
But it’s a loss that has been widening. The company has now started to take steps to make it profitable in the coming years despite having fierce challenges from its competitors.
10. Dream11
Revenue: INR 2,554.4 Crores for FY2021
Dream11 – A fantasy sport startup
It is a fantasy sports platform based in India, founded in the year 2008. Dream11 startup enables users to play fantasy sports like cricket, kabaddi, hockey, basketball, and football.
This has been the first Indian gaming company to become a unicorn. The gaming startup has revenue of INR 2554.4 crores for the Financial Year 2021.
Conclusion
The startups in India have seen massive growth in the past decade. Many startups were able to attain the status of unicorn in recent times making India the third-largest hub for unicorn startups in the world.
India has always been famous for its successful talent in technology, medical fields, and more. Now, the nation is shining bright with its batch of growing startup industry.
FAQs
What is a Unicorn company in India?
A unicorn company stands for the term for any privately owned company having a value of more than $1 billion.
Which city has the most startups in India?
At present times, the city of Bengaluru claims the position of the Indian city having the most number of startups in India.
Is BYJUS profitable?
No, the ed-tech platform BYJUS is highly appreciated for the introduction of a new concept in the world of education. It is counted among the most profitable unicorn in India.
Are Indian unicorns profitable?
India contains more than 100 unicorns on its record. However, not every unicorn is counted as a profitable company. It is estimated that out of 100 only 18 unicorns are profitable.
Which is the biggest startup in India?
India is home to many valuable startups. Some of the biggest startups in India are Urban Company, Paytm, Classplus, Razorpay, etc.
In a company, one of the most significant factors is the employees. Without them, one cannot even imagine running a company, no matter how small the business is. Your employees are the main assets of your company. However in 2022, we are seeing, some major, popular companies laying off their employees. Some of these layoffs have stunned the world of business as they are even reaching thousands of employees at once.
The reason for the layoffs varies, from cost-cutting to bad performance to financial difficulties. Some of the companies even faced criticism for their sudden decision. Many people lost their jobs during the pandemic and now these strings of similar layoffs are creating a ruckus in the world. The economic situation of the world is also a big reason for these layoffs. According to reports over 8000 people alone in just the first half of 2022 have been laid off by their companies.
In this article, we will talk about those companies who have laid off their employees and their reason for doing that. Furthermore, we will also talk about the companies that have the possibility to follow the path of laying off their employees. So, without any further ado, let’s get started.
“Your employees come first. And if you treat your employees right, guess what? Your customers come back, and that makes your shareholders happy. Start with employees and the rest follows from that.” -Herb Kelleher
Founder – Bill Hewlett, David Packard Founded – 1939 Laid Off – Up to 6,000 Employees (by 2025)
HP – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
The American multinational IT Company, HP has joined the list of top tech companies laying off its employees. HP will lay off 4,000 to 6,000 employees, which is around 10% of its current global workforce of 61,000, over the next three years as a part of its cost-cutting efforts.
The company will also reduce its real estate footprint along with the layoffs. HP’s ‘Future Ready Transformation’ plan is expected to save the company as much as $1.4 billion annually by the end of 2025. It expects the restructuring and other activities to cost around $1 billion.
India’s prominent food delivery startup, Zomato, is reportedly planning to lay off its employees on account of its cost-cutting efforts to become profitable. Zomato is going to lay off about 3-4% of its workforce, which currently consists of nearly 3,800 employees. Around 100 Zomato employees have already been affected in the product, technology, catalogue, and marketing areas. Zomato has called it a “regular performance-based churn.” Earlier, Zomato laid off around 520 employees (13% of its workforce) in May 2020 as a result of the business downturn caused by the pandemic.
Amazon
Founder – Jeff Bezos Founded – 1994 Laid Off – 10,000 Employees (November 2022)
Amazon – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
Amazon has also joined the bandwagon of layoffs and is reportedly laying off 10,000 employees in corporate and technology jobs. The company’s layoffs will be focused on its device business, including its Alexa products, and its retail and human resources divisions. The layoffs represent less than 1% of Amazon’s global workforce of more than 1.5 million. It is the biggest job cut that Amazon has ever made in its history.
Meta
Founder – Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew McCollum, Chris Hughes, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin Founded – 2004 Laid Off – 11,000 Employees (November 2022)
Meta – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
On November 9, 2022, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, announced that it is laying off more than 11,000 employees, accounting for nearly 13% of its workforce. It is one of the biggest tech layoffs of 2022. According to Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, the reasons behind the company’s mass layoffs include the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and diminishing ad revenues, which caused Meta’s revenue to be lower than what he had expected.
Meta also plans to cut down its discretionary expenses and continue the hiring freeze through the first quarter of 2023.
Twitter
Founder – Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Noah Glass Founded – 2006
Twitter Recent Layoffs
November 2022
3,700 employees
July 2022
100 employees
Twitter – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
Twitter is an American communications company founded by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, and Noah Glass on March 21, 2006. Currently headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States, Twitter is one of the biggest social media platforms that has been all over the news in relation to one of the biggest acquisitions in modern times ($44 billion), led by billionaire techie, Elon Musk. Twitter laid off 30% of its staff (nearly 100 employees) from the recruiting team in July 2022.
On November 4, 2022, Twitter laid off about 3,700 employees, accounting for nearly 50% of its global workforce, including 90% of employees in India, as a way to cut costs following the company’s acquisition by Musk, which closed on October 27, 2022.
Founder – Amod Malviya, Vaibhav Gupta, Sujeet Kumar Year – 2016 Laid Off – 350 Employees (November 2022)
Udaan – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
Udaan, a B2B eCommerce platform and a proud unicorn startup in India has joined the list of top companies laying off its employees. The startup laid off about 350 full-time employees in November 2022 in order to attain profitability and better efficiency. However, this is not the first time that the startup has laid off its employees. Earlier in June 2022, it laid off 180 employees as a part of its cost-cutting initiatives. The second round of its layoffs this year comes only a week after the startup raised $120 million through convertible notes and debt.
Coinbase
Founder – Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam Founded – 2012
Coinbase Recent Layoffs
November 2022
60
June 2022
1,100
Coinbase – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
Coinbase is an online platform from which you can buy and sell cryptocurrency. The employees of the company work remotely and it doesn’t have any headquarters. It is considered the biggest crypto exchange platform. On a very shocking note, the company laid off around 1,100 of its employees which amounts to almost 18% of its workforce in June 2022. According to the company, the decision has been taken to control and manage the expenses of the company with the ongoing situation in the market.
Coinbase laid off another 60 employees from its recruiting and institutional onboarding departments in November 2022.
Unacademy
Founder – Gaurav Munjal, Hemesh Singh, Roman Saini Founded – 2015
Unacademy Recent Layoffs
November 2022
350 employees
June 2022
150 employees
Unacademy – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
One of the biggest EdTech companies in India shocked everyone this year when they decided to lay off around 600 employees. It was a sudden decision in the month of April. The reasons for this layoff were said to be that the performances of the employees were not good enough.
After that, the edtech giant laid off 150 employees in June 2022. On November 7, 2022, Unacademy conducted another round of layoffs and laid off around 350 employees, accounting for nearly 10% of its workforce of 3,500, as the company tries to cut its expenses and generate a profit.
Microsoft
Founder – Bill Gates, Paul Allen Founded – 1975
Microsoft Recent Layoffs
October 2022
1,000 employees
August 2022
200 employees
July 2022
1,800 employees
Microsoft – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
Microsoft Corporation or Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975. Microsoft is an American multinational technology corporation that is unarguably one of the biggest tech companies in the world today. However, after the company announced that it would be laying off as part of a “realignment”, Microsoft also joined the list of big companies laying off their employees. Besides, it is also important to note that Microsoft became the first tech giant to lay off employees.
Microsoft laid off 1,800 employees in July 2022, and a month later, it laid off another 200 employees. In October 2022, it laid off around 1,000 employees, marking the third round of layoffs in the same year.
BYJU’S
Founder – Byju Raveendran, Divya Gokulnath Founded – 2011 Laid Off – 2,500 (October 2022)
BYJU’S – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
In October 2022, the biggest Edtech in India, BYJU’S took a drastic decision and announced that it will lay off 2,500 employees or 5% of its workforce. The unicorn, even after reaching a valuation of around $22 billion, decided to sack its employees. The startup’s co-founder and CEO blamed macroeconomic conditions and the startup’s plans to achieve profitability by the end of the current financial year as the reasons behind mass layoffs.
Noom
Founder – Saeju Jeong, Artem Petakov Founded – 2008
Noom Recent Layoffs
October 2022
500 employees
April 2022
500 employees
Noom – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
Noom is a wellness app that deals with tracking the weight of a person and also focuses on mental health. The company in the month of April announced the dismissal of 500 employees. The layoff is done because of the sole reason for changing the coaching model. The strategy of coaching has been changed, and the employees were dismissed for the betterment of the business. In October 2022, Noom laid off about 500 employees, accounting for nearly 10% of its total staff.
Clear
Founder – Ankit Solanki, Archit Gupta, Srivatsan Chari Founded – 2011 Laid Off – 190 to 200 Employees (September 2022)
Clear – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
India’s leading Fintech SaaS startup, Clear (formerly Cleartax) is another prominent name that has joined the list of companies laying off their employees in 2022. The Bengaluru-based startup laid off 190 to 200 employees across different departments on September 15, 2022. This number amounts to nearly 20% of the company’s workforce. The layoffs are said to be a part of the company’s restructuring efforts to increase its cash flow.
Rupeek
Founder – Sumit Maniyar Founded – 2015
Rupeek Recent Layoffs
September 2022
50
June 2022
180-200
Rupeek – Top Companies Laying Off Its Employees
Rupeek is a digital gold loan provider company whose headquarters is situated in Bengaluru, India. It is present in over 35 cities. The company laid off about 180-200 of its employees which is 10-15% of its workforce in June 2022. The layoff has been done from different departments and teams. Rupeek gave the reason for cost-cutting for firing its employees, the company is looking forward to making its structure leaner and more compatible. In September 2022, Rupeek once again laid off around 50 employees across different departments as part of its strategy to become profitable in the next 12-18 months.
Meesho
Founder – Sanjeev Barnwal, Vidit Aatrey Founded – 2015
Meesho Recent Layoffs
August 2022
300 employees
April 2022
150 employees
Meesho – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
Meesho, in a sudden and surprising move, fired 150 employees of the company from their grocery business in the month of April. The popular reselling startup in India had its grocery business called Farmiso, which has now been renamed Meesho Superstore. The company is in discussion to merge the grocery store with its main app. The reorganization of the store is said to be the reason for the layoffs. This is also based on their performance in the business till now and their efficiency in adapting themselves to the new form of Meesho Superstore.
A few months later, in August 2022, Meesho laid off more than 300 employees after shutting down its grocery business in India, Superstore.
Better.Com
Founder – Eric Wilson, Erik Bernhardsson, Shawn Low, Viral Shah, Vishal Garg Founded – 2016
Better.com Recent Layoffs
August 2022
250 employees
April 2022
1,000 employees
March 2022
2,000 employees
December 2021
900 employees
Probably the most controversial layoff that has been done is by Better.com. The company was facing the heat since last year when it fired over 900 of its employees over a single Zoom call in December 2021. In March 2022, it laid off 2,000 employees and about 1,000 employees were fired in April 2022. In this year only, they have laid off almost 3000 of their employees. As per the company, the reason for the layoff is based on the performance of the employees. They have stated that the employees are fired because of their lack of productivity and their inefficiency in work. Since December 2021, the company has fired almost 50% of its workforce.
In August 2022, Better.com conducted yet another round of layoffs, by firing about 250 employees.
Ford
Founder – Henry Ford Founded – 1903
Ford Recent Layoffs
August 2022
3,000 employees
April 2022
580 employees
Ford – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
The American multinational automobile manufacturer Ford, in the month of April, announced that they are laying off 580 of its US employees. This decision comes right after when the company announced that it will restructure the company and will focus on the making of electric vehicles. The dismissal is mainly done by the engineering department as the making of electric vehicles required different skill sets. Therefore, as per the company, it is done for the future needs of the company.
In August 2022, Ford confirmed laying off around 3,000 employees and contract workers. The job cuts are effective September 1, a spokesman said. The reason behind the layoffs is said to be the change in operations and redeployment of resources as the company plans to embrace new technologies that were not previously core to its operations, such as developing advanced software for its vehicles.
Walmart
Founder – Samuel Moore Walton Founded – 1962 Laid Off – 200 Employees (August 2022)
Walmart – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
Walmart Inc., the popular American retail multinational corporation disclosed that it would be cutting the job roles of hundreds of corporate employees. In its Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters, Walmart reported on August 3, 2022, that it would have to part with nearly 200 of its employees. The departments that would have to bear the brunt are numerous, including merchandising, real estate, and global technology, among others.
Robinhood
Founder – Vladimir Tenev, Baiju Bhatt Founded – 2013
Robinhood Recent Layoffs
August 2022
700+
April 2022
300+
Robinhood – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
Consumer investing and trading service company, Robinhood before announcing its financial performance in the first quarter of 2022 announced that they are going to lay off 9% of its employees that is more than 300 of its employees in April 2022. All these employees were their permanent employees. The company went public last year in 2021 but they face a decline in trading, as per reports, this is said to be the main reason for the dismissal. In August 2022, the company again laid off about 23% of its workforce which might account for more than 700 employees. The Financial Times estimated the number of employees impacted to be nearly 780.
Yes, another popular Edtech startup, Vedantu has laid a good number of employees. Vedantu laid off 424 employees both full-time and contractual, in May 2022. Before that, it laid off 200 of its employees in the same month. The reason for this is to increase their Capital runway as per Vedantu. Apart from that, the reopening of schools and classes being conducted offline, are also said to be the reason for the layoffs of the Edtechs. Vedantu again laid off 100 employees across departments, in July 2022. This was done due to the business restructuring procedure that Vedantu is planning.
BlueStacks
Founder – Rosen Sharma, Jay Vaishnav, Suman Saraf Founded – 2011 Laid Off – 120 to 150 Employees (July 2022)
BlueStacks – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
BlueStacks was founded by Rosen Sharma, Jay Vaishnav, and Suman Saraf in 2011. Headquartered in Campbell, California, United States, BlueStacks is known as the 2nd largest PC gaming platform in the world that aims to bring PC gamers and the Android gaming library. The pouring demand for Android smartphones has helped the company witness humongous growth throughout the year. This popular Android emulator platform has laid off 60 Indian employees, as per reports dated July 20, 2022. BlueStacks reportedly informed a majority of the employees via video calls on July 18, 2022, that their services would not be needed anymore.
Along with India, the company has also cut down its workforce in many other countries as well, from its offices in London, Tokyo, Seoul, and Beijing. The total count of layoffs might be as high as 150 employees as well, ranging between 120-150, according to the reports. The reason behind the layoffs is internal restructuring. BlueStacks has offered 1 month of salary as severance pay to the laid-off employees along with medical benefits, as mentioned by sources.
TikTok
Founder – Zhang Yiming Founded – 2016 Laid Off – 100 Employees (July 2022)
TikTok – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
TikTok is a short-form video hosting service platform that is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. TikTok has achieved sensational growth in India and across the world for its viral, short-form content, which even resulted in several countries complaining and banning TikTok. The platform is still growing with 8 new users joining TikTok each second. It has over 1 billion monthly active users, as of July 2022.
The popular, controversial ByteDance subsidiary TikTok has reportedly started reducing its workforce by laying off staff working in the EU, EK, and the US. These layoffs, according to Wired and some other news and media networks might affect around 100 TikTok employees, which currently work with a workforce of around 10,000 employees across the US and Europe. The TikTok layoffs are in line with the global restructuring initiatives of the company.
Netflix
Founder – Marc Randolph, Reed Hastings Founded – 1997
Netflix Recent Layoffs
June 2022
300 employees
May 2022
150 employees
Netflix – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
The biggest streaming platform, in a surprising turn of events, announced that it was going to lay off 150 of its employees across the company in May 2022. Although it was not a huge number, it still became the talk of the town. Some of Netflix’s sudden decisions led to its slower growth of revenue, which was said to be the prime reason for laying off 150 employees. According to Netflix, it was basically done to cut costs at the streaming giant. Netflix recently lost over 2 lakh subscribers and is expected to lose more; this is one of the reasons for its slower revenue growth. In the month of June 2022, Netflix again laid off 300 of its employees, and again the reason was cost cutting.
Want to Work in Top Gobal & Indian Startups or Looking For Remote/Web3 Jobs – Join angel.co
Angel.co is the best Job Searching Platform to find a Job in Your Preferred domain like tech, marketing, HR etc.
Founder – Elon Musk, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning Founded – 2003 Laid Off – 200 (June 2022)
Tesla – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
Tesla which was working on its Autopilot advanced driver assistance features has faced a sudden shock. In an unexpected turn of events, Tesla laid off around 200 employees who were working on the autopilot feature in June 2022. This decision comes after Elon Musk asked the company to decrease the headcount by 10%.
CityMall
Founder – Angad Kikla and Naisheel Vardhan Founded – 2019 Laid Off – 191 (June 2022)
CityMall – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
The three-year-old Ecommerce startup CityMall stuns everyone when it announced the layoff of 191 of its employees in June 2022. The Gurugram-based startup even after raising $75 million, added its name to the list of startups that have laid off their employees in the year 2022. The reason for this layoff as stated by the company is the structural changes that are taking place in the system.
Cars24
Founder – Gajendra Jangid, Mehul Agrawal, Ruchit Agarwal, Vikram Chopra Founded – 2015 Laid Off – 600 Employees (May 2022)
Cars24 – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
Cars24 said goodbye to over 600 employees of the company, which is 6% of their workforce. The fired people include employees from different departments and roles. The company has not provided any special reason for the layoff and has only stated that it is based on the performance of the employees. Every year employees are laid off if they are not providing their very best. Cars24 decision of firing its employees comes at a time when the company is looking to expand itself globally.
Klarna
Founder – Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Niklas Adalberth Founded – 2005 Laid Off – 700 (May 2022)
Klarna – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
Klarna is a Swedish fintech company that deals with online financial services. In a pre-recorded video the CEO of the company forwarded the news to the employees that the company will lay off 10% of the global workforce. Almost 700 employees were affected by this decision in May 2022. The CEO said that the Ukraine-Russia war and a likely recession are the reason behind this drastic step.
In September 2022, the company disclosed over a video meeting that it is planning another round of layoffs in an attempt to “reflect” its new and “more focused nature.” According to Klarna, the new round of layoffs will affect less than 100 employees, globally.
MFine
Founder – Prasad Kompalli, Ashutosh Lawania Founded – 2017 Laid Off – 500 (May 2022)
MFine – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
MFine is a digital health platform based in Bengaluru that provides services like doctor consultations, diagnostic tests and others. The health platform’s sudden turn of events laid off almost 500 employees of the company in May 2022. It is almost 50% of their workforce. The company hired employees even in the month of April but after the struggle to raise funds started increasing, it decided to lay off its employees.
Blinkit
Founder – Albinder Dhindsa Founded – 2013 Laid Off – 1,600 approx (March 2022)
Blinkit – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
Blinkit, previously known as Grofers is an online grocery shopping platform, recent in the month of March it laid off some of its employees. It is said to be 5% of their workforce which is about 1,600. The layoff has been done in mostly three cities, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai. The company has spent almost INR 600 Crores to focus on their 10 minutes delivery offering. Apart from laying off their employees, the online grocery platform is also delaying the payments of the vendors. The main reason for the layoff is said to be cost-cutting.
Trell
Founder – Agrawal, Sachan, Arun Lodhi, Bimal Kartheek Rebba Founded – 2016 Laid Off – 300 (March 2022)
Trell – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
Nothing seems to be going right for the Social commerce startup Trell. Amidst its investigation of its alleged financial irregularities, it is said to have decided to fire 300 of its employees almost 50% of its workforce. The situation that has led to this decision is mainly the investigation that is going on by EY India. However, the company gave out the reason for restructuring and strengthening the company for the layoff. The roles that are not needed are cut off from the company.
Furlenco
Founder – Ajith Karimpana Founded – 2012 Laid Off – 180 (March 2022)
Furlenco – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
Furlenco is a startup that provides rented furniture to its customers. The company is said to lay off about 180-200 of its employees. It is also reported that the startup has stopped all their operation in the cities like Kolkata, Jaipur, Chandigarh and Mysuru. The company has given restructuring as the main reason for the firing of their employees, the staffs mostly belong to the customer support and grievance management departments.
OkCredit
Founder – Gaurav Kumar, Aditya Prasad, Harsh Pokharna Founded – 2017 Laid Off – 40 (February 2022)
OkCredit – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
OkCredit is a digital ledger company and on a shocking front, the company laid off around 40 of its employees in the month of February 2022. The organisation said that the reason for the sudden decision was because of the company’s changes in their priority. This has led to the restructuring of the company and the roles of the employees in the company which has led to the dismissal of several employees from the company.
Lido Learning
Founder – Sahil Sheth Founded – 2019 Laid Off – 150+ Employees (February 2022)
Lido Learning – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
The employees of Lido Learning faced a shocking and terrible situation when about 150 to 200 of them were laid off in the month of February 2022. Lido Learning has been backed by some of the most prominent investors like Anupam Mittal and Mukesh Bansal. The company also raised over $10 million in the month of September 2021. Lido Learning founder Sahil Sheth informed the employees that because of facing some financial difficulties, the company wouldn’t be able to pay their salaries. Apart from that, some employees were asked to look for other jobs.
Unilever
Founder – Antonius Johannes Jurgens, Samuel van den Bergh, Georg Schicht Founded – 1929 Laid Off – 1,500 Employees (January 2022)
Unilever – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
Unilever, the consumer goods multinational company revealed its plan to cut 1,500 jobs from the company in January 2022. This will be valid worldwide, the decision comes after its failure to buy the consumer health division of GlaxoSmithKline. Unilever has decided to opt for a more competitive operating model and reorganize the company for its growth and to be more responsive to consumer trends.
DiDi
Founder – Cheng Wei, Zhang Bo, Wu Rui Founded – 2012 Laid Off – 3000 (February 2022)
DiDi – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
Chinese Ridesharing service DiDi decided to lay off 20% of its workforce in the month of February. Approximately 3,000 employees lost their jobs because of this decision. The reason for this decision is said to be the regulatory pressure that the company faced since an investigation was launched against the company last year. With its shares facing a huge decline and the company suffering a loss, the decision was taken to analyse the whole matter.
Royal Mail
Founder – Henry VIII Founded – 1516 Laid Off – 700 (January 2022)
Royal Mail – Top Companies Laying off Its Employees
The postal company of Britain, Royal Mail has been present for centuries. The company in January 2022 decided to cut off 700 employees of theirs. This decision comes after the company faced problems because of Covid, which has led to delays in deliveries. The performance of the postal company was criticised, therefore to bring change and restructure the company, they decided to fire their 700 employees.
In October 2022, the company announced that it is planning to cut down its workforce by around 10,000 by August 2023. Royal Mail attributes this decision to ongoing strikes and rising losses at the company.
Nestlé
Founder – Henri Nestlé Founded – 1866 Laid Off – 104 (March 2022)
Nestle Logo
Nestlé is a Swiss multinational food and drink conglomerate. In a sudden decision, the food processing giant has decided to close down its Sweet Earth food facility that is in California. This has led to the laying off of 104 employees in March 2022. The decision comes after, the plant-based meat company was seen to have negative growth and experience losses. Nestle acquired Sweet Earth Food Facility in 2017, it sells plant-based meat food items.
Tesco
Founder – Jack Cohen Founded – 1919 Laid Off – 1600 (February 2022)
Tesco Logo
Tesco is the biggest supermarket chain in Britain, now the supermarket chain is looking for a major overnight transformation. They are mostly shutting down the meat and fish counters of 300 stores because of low demand. This decision may lead to the layoff of 1600 employees of Tesco. The job cuts are followed as the supermarket chain is on the verge of reorganising itself.
Cineplex
Founder – Ellis Jacob, Garth Drabinsky, Gerald W. Schwartz Founded – 1999 Laid Off – 5000 (January 2022)
Cineplex Logo
Cineplex is a movie theatre chain in Canada. The pandemic situation has created many problems throughout the world, the theatre chain also faced a problem due to this. The company in the month of January announced that it was temporarily laying off 5000 employees of their as theatres are shutting down in Ontario. This decision comes after the surge of the Omicron variant of Corona in the country. However, the layoff is said to be a temporary one.
Primark
Founder – Arthur Ryan Founded – 1969 Laid Off – 400 (January 2022)
Primark Logo
The UK-based multinational fashion retailer Primark has decided to cut off 400 employees of theirs in the month of January. As per reports, the decision was taken to simplify the management structure. As the omicron variant surged and the inflation seems to get serious, the sales of Primark were hit. Now to restructure the company, the layoff was needed.
Conde Nast
Founder – Condé Nast Founded – 1909 Laid Off – 90% of the Workforce
Conde Nast Logo
Conde Nast is one of the biggest global media companies, home to some iconic brands like Vogue, GQ and Vanity Fair. On a quite shocking front, the Magazine giant announced that they will lay off 90% of employees in Russia and will halt the distribution of Vogue Russia and other publications of theirs. The biggest reason for this decision was said to be the Ukraine invasion by Russia. The company has cut off its term permanently with Conde Nast Russia.
Common Reasons for the Layoffs
Big companies and organisations are facing problems and many of them are laying off their employees in response to that. There are multiple reasons, varying from company to company. Some of the common reasons for the layoff are:
Companies are not able to adapt to the situations after the lockdown and pandemic.
Inflation is on the rise again.
Companies facing financial difficulties.
The slowdown of funding in the business world.
The Ukraine invasion by Russia has led many companies to stop doing business with the latter.
The inefficiency of employees.
Restructure and modernisation of a company.
Companies That Have to Freeze Their Hiring
With the economy of the world facing jeopardy and several other reasons, a number of companies have frozen their hiring and they are:
Meta has frozen their hiring and it is said to be lasting through the first quarter of 2023. The main reasons, the company has given are the industry-wide downturn and privacy data changes.
In May 2022, Wayfair froze their hiring for 90 days and again the reason is the situation with the economy of the world.
Twitter freezes their hiring and many of its top employees are getting fired, the sole reason is the ownership change of the company, as it now belongs to Elon Musk.
Google is another company that has slowed down its hiring, though it has not frozen its recruitment yet, as mentioned by Google CEO Sundar Pichai, in the first week of July 2022.
Conclusion
Various companies are taking the step of firing their employees as mentioned above the reason varies from economic conditions to the pandemic to the restructuring of the company, and even the inefficiency of the employees. Apart from all these, there also seems to be a slowdown in funding and pressure by investors to make the company more and more profitable. With the current global economic situation, it seems like the worst is yet to come.
FAQs
What is a layoff?
A layoff simply refers to the termination of an employee of a company. It occurs due to business-related reasons and not because of the employee’s fault. A company may lay off a single employee or multiple employees at the same time.
Why Companies are laying off their employees?
Companies are firing employees for various reasons that vary from economic conditions to the pandemic to the restructuring of the company, and even the inefficiency of the employees.
Which Indian startups are laying off their employees?
Many Indian startups are laying off their employees in 2022, including Udaan, Unacademy, BYJU’S, Vedantu, Meesho, Cars24, Clear, Lido Learning, and more.
Is Meta laying off its employees?
On November 9, 2022, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, announced that it is laying off more than 11,000 employees, accounting for nearly 13% of its workforce.
How many Twitter employees were laid off?
On November 4, 2022, Twitter laid off about 3,700 employees, accounting for nearly 50% of its global workforce, including 90% of employees in India, following the company’s acquisition by Elon Musk.
It is the combined use of computer hardware, software and educational theory to enhance, engage and individualised classroom learning. Edtech refers to the industry of companies that create educational technology.
Edtech’s growth can be attributed to the potential scalability for individualised learning. IoT devices are being acknowledged and appreciated for their ability to create digital classrooms, no matter where the student is.
Blockchain tools are assisting teachers in grading tests and holding students responsible for their work. Edtech tools are changing the very core of what constituted classrooms in the past.
The last two years have seen monumental growth in the Edtech industry fuelled by a need to continue education during the harsh lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic. Edtech fulfils a variety of purposes in the education field.
Improved student outcomes.
Enhanced individualized education.
Reduces the teaching burden on instructors.
Better engagement with the students.
Accessible long-distance learning.
Gamification of learning inducing fun.
Accommodation of multiple learning styles.
Instant feedback to teachers.
Encourages collaboration.
Why Is Edtech Under Government Scanner?
The Department of Consumer Affairs has taken a very serious note of the complaints they have received over the aggressive misselling of courses by Edtech companies like Byju’s, Vedantu, UpGrad, Unacademy, Great Learning, WhiteHat Jr and a few other edtech startups.
The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), in its annual complaint report, shows that the education sector has emerged as the largest violator of the advertising code between April 2021 and March 2022. The ASCI has stated that nearly 33% of the total complaints that it has received in this time period pertaining to the Edtech sector.
It also highlighted that these complaints were not a new development, considering several Edtech startups have lately been under the consumer radar for misleading advertisements. A case in point was the case between Pradeep Poonia and WhiteHat Jr. in 2020-2021.
Pradeep Ponia on LinkedIn
The limelight on the Edtech sector has also been highlighted by the UGC (University Grants Commission) issuing a diktat to higher education institutes to withdraw any degree or diploma programs that are offered in partnerships with Edtech companies.
On Friday, the government issued a warning to the Edtech companies, clearly stating that it will be forced to bring stringent guidelines to curb unfair trade practices and encourage better transparency.
What Steps Should an Edtech Company Take To Comply With the Government?
In absence of self-regulation by the Edtech companies, the government has warned of stringent regulations to address the below-mentioned agenda :
Curb misleading advertisements.
Upholding consumer interests across the system.
Deal with blatant disregard for existing guidelines and regulations.
Maintain robust checkpoints that align with consumer interest.
Address the high cost of education through Edtech companies and make it more affordable.
Challenges Faced by Edtech Companies
The Edtech industry witnessed a boom in 2020, thanks to the lockdowns bringing the face-to-face ways of teaching to a standstill. It has helped to modernize an industry that was deeply traditional and reserved.
The opportunities and potential for growth of Edtech are limitless. However, it also offers some big challenges.
Survival in a highly competitive market
This industry is tough and unforgiving due to the very fluid nature of technology. Constant upgrades and newer technological advances mean the industry has to not only keep up with it but also has to pitch a very unique value proposition to its subscribers.
A new entrant needs a new value proposition and an older player needs to adapt consistently to keep their value propositions relevant and unique over time.
Building partnerships with a traditional industry
This is probably the biggest challenge of them all. To earn the trust of an industry that is as traditional as it is old. Validation of claims of adding value needs strong documentation support.
Being Relevant in an ever-changing world of technology
This means staying on top of every new technological advance that occurs in this sector and also making it relevant to the existing business model. This is as time-consuming as it is costly. A necessary evil tool for survival.
An audience-grabbing market strategy
The first step is to make a product to fit the market. Then reach out to the target audience. Of course, the biggest consideration is the price of the product. And the last and most relevant is getting and keeping customers.
Managing fears about data collection and security
While the world has moved online, the fears of data collection and security are very real. These fears, sometimes, rule the decision-making process and have to be successfully addressed.
Communication Flow
The communication gap between the company and its target audience has to be properly addressed. The target audience and their differences have to be understood and the communication technology has to be designed accordingly.
User activation and usage
The only way to retain the customers year after year is to encourage user engagement, spark their interest and continually remind them of the product’s value. The app has to be easy to use and easily accessible. This requires constant software updates and regular customer communication.
Managing retention
This is possible through a high level of customer service, offering different levels to cover beginners, intermediate and higher levels of educational material, and offering a customized learning path to suit a customer’s need.
Conclusion
While the Edtech industry saw a great boom during the pandemic lockdowns, now the schools have reopened. There is also a dearth of funding options due to a slowing economy and the looming threat of an economic crisis.
All this is leading to massive layoffs within the sector and shutdowns of a few startups. Now, the edtech industry is facing government scrutiny and ire. Presently, it looks like the USD 3 billion market is in a spot of trouble.
However, with the vastness of the world and the opportunities that this sector of education has opened up, it is clear, that while it may undergo some changes, it is here to stay.
FAQs
Why are Edtech companies under the government scanner?
The government has concerns over the complaints regarding misleading advertisements by edtech firms in India.
What is the future of EdTech companies?
As per a report, the edtech industry will reach $4 billion by 2025.
Why do EdTech startups fail?
Edtech startups spend huge amounts of money on advertising and gaining customers but they fail to make money from their business models.
If I ask you to name an e-learning app where students can attend live classes, watch pre-recorded videos and give tests, most of you will surely name Byju’s. And why not! Byju’s is India’s most famous edtech decacorn valued at $22 billion.
Currently, the app has 10 Cr+ downloads on the Play Store with students spending 71 minutes on average time on a daily basis from 1700+ cities.
The app has 6 million paying subscribers with an 85 per cent renewal rate. All these statistics show how much Byju’s has grown over the years. In India, the education system is majorly based on an offline learning model. Then how did this company popularise the e-learning concept?
In a country like India where parents hate mobile phones and the internet in the hands of their children, how did this company make both students and parents understand the benefits of studying online?
The answer to all of these questions lies in their marketing strategy. Let’s break down the brilliant marketing strategy of Byju’s in great detail.
Before we dive deep into Byju’s marketing strategy let’s first understand who exactly is their target audience.
The target audience of this growing edtech company is millennials and gen z from grade 1 to the ones who are studying for competitive exams like CAT, IAS, JEE, NEET, GMAT, UPSC and banking exams.
But, apart from the students, the parents are also the target audience of the company since they are the decision-makers and the ones who pay money for the classes. With that understood, let’s analyse our marketing strategy of Byju’s.
Byju’s Marketing Strategy During COVID-19 Pandemic
During the COVID-19 outbreak, while many of the brands were facing losses, Byju’s on the other hand substantially increased its user base and revenue.
The Indian edtech company became a decacorn and crossed a $10.5 billion valuation during the pandemic after getting funding of $100 million from Silicon Valley investor and analyst Mary Meeker’s Bond Capital.
But, how did the company become so successful during the outbreak? To find an answer to this question let’s see the marketing strategy of Byju’s from the start of the pandemic.
In March 2020, when all the schools and colleges were shut the company provided free access to its complete app till the end of March.
So, for 2 months students could attend live classes and watch interactive videos without spending any money. Students who were studying in classes 1-3 could learn Maths and English concepts and students in classes 4-12 could study Maths and Science concepts.
Now, why did they give free access to the classes?
See, people love free things. When we hear this four-letter word our behavioural pattern changes and the entry barrier is eliminated.
The principle of reciprocity is also associated with this strategy. According to this principle, when someone helps us we get obligated to return the favour. So, if students use the app for 2 months and enjoy the learning process the chances of those students returning back and buying the subscription are much higher.
This strategy was very successful and the company registered 6 million new students in the month of March and 7.5 million users in April.
The edtech company said that they witnessed a 150 per cent increase in student enrollment due to this free strategy.
In August 2020, the company acquired WhiteHat Jr, an online coding school for $300 million.
Later, in April 2021, Byju’s acquired Aakash Educational Services Ltd (AESL) for USD 1 billion which is the biggest acquisition of Byju’s to date. This partnership will help the company grow its presence in the test preparation segment.
The company didn’t stop here, in July 2021, the company acquired Toppr, an online learning app for $150 million.
Byju’s wants to create its own ecosystem and that’s why it is continuously acquiring a lot of companies. The edtech giant knows that if they want to stay in the market for a long time they need to either defeat their competitors or destroy the competition by acquiring them.
Let’s see what marketing strategies Byju’s used before the pandemic.
📃
ST Mentors Presents: List of Top Courses that will get you a High Paying Job or will help in Upskilling and Boosting Your Income 💵💵 |👇 Check the List 👇|
List of Courses Curated By Top Marketing Professionals in the Industry
These are the courses curated by Top Marketing Professionals in the Industry who have spent 100+ Hours reviewing the Courses available in the market. These courses will help you to get a job or upgrade your skills.
Brand ambassadors are very important for any company since they give a more human touch to the brand and build authority and trust with the people.
In 2017, Byju’s made a television advertisement with Shahrukh Khan to launch their official app. This advertisement was telecasted during the India-Pakistan cricket match. This is such an amazing marketing strategy, right? We all know that the India V/S Pakistan cricket match attracts maximum eyeballs.
So, when lakhs of people were watching the match they see the King of Bollywood say ‘let your children fall in love with learning’. Due to the massive fanbase of Shahrukh Khan, a lot of students and parents started gaining interest in Byju’s app. The interesting thing about this advertisement was that it targeted both the children and parents. This campaign was very successful.
To make better relationships with Gen-Z Byju’s also tied up with Disney. Since the popularity of Disney among kids is humongous it gave the brand an added boost.
Educational games, digital worksheets and the trademark Disney stories made parents understand that their children can learn using fun activities and stories. This partnership helped in strengthening Byju’s K-12 (kindergarten to Class XII) space.
Busted Biggest Myth about Technology
Now, due to the pandemic, both parents and students have understood the importance of e-learning. But, in the past, many parents felt that mobile phones were the biggest problem in the lives of their children. Parents felt their children only use mobile phones and the internet to play games, chat with their friends and watch useless videos.
They didn’t understand that technology can help their children in studying as well. To break this myth of parents Byju’s launched a video campaign ‘Come Fall in Love With Learning’. This campaign helped parents understand that there is nothing wrong with studying using mobile phones.
Sponsored Indian Cricket Jersey
In 2019, Byju’s sponsored the Indian cricket Jersey. The logo of Byju’s on the cricket jersey was unveiled in a video campaign named ‘Keep Learning’. In this TV commercial, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant walked onto the pitch wearing the cricket jersey with Byju’s logo on it.
This shows that Byju’s has clearly understood how much Indians love cricket and are using this opportunity to grow this business. Imagine how much of a positive impact it would have created both on students and parents when they see their idols explaining the importance of learning while wearing the jersey with Byju’s logo on it.
Want to Work in Top Gobal & Indian Startups or Looking For Remote/Web3 Jobs – Join angel.co
Angel.co is the best Job Searching Platform to find a Job in Your Preferred domain like tech, marketing, HR etc.
India is a nation of different cultures and languages. So, when any company is making its marketing strategy it is very important to target people using the language that they speak.
In the early stage, Byju’s usually launched campaigns in Hindi. Although afterwards Byju’s realised that to connect with the people living in different parts of India they need to launch regional campaigns.
In May 2019 the company roped in Mahesh Babu for a video campaign targeting Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The new campaign highlighted the evolving learning habits of children and how Byju’s app makes learning fun for them. It also explained that technology can be a friend to students and can help them study more effectively.
Later, in July 2020 the company partnered with Sudeep Sanjeev and launched two television ad-campaign in Kannada. They also launched two new television advertisements with their existing brand ambassador Mahesh Babu in Telugu.
All the four ad films were of 50 seconds each. The advertisements highlighted how students are enjoying online learning and encourages parents to accept the new method of learning.
Partnered with ICC to Become its Global Partner
Byju’s sponsoring ICC
Byju’s wasn’t just satisfied with sponsoring the Indian cricket Jersey. In February 2021, International Cricket Council (ICC) announced Byju’s as its global partner from 2021 to 2023. The three-year contract allows Byju’s to partner with all ICC events including the upcoming T20 World Cup in India and the women’s World Cup in New Zealand.
Byju’s will get extensive in-venue, broadcast, and digital rights across all ICC events. Since the ‘Keep Learning’ campaign was very successful it made sense for the company to invest more money in cricket.
Byju’s Became the First Indian Edtech To Sponsor FIFA World Cup
Byjus Sponsoring FIFA
After integrating cricket into its marketing strategy Byju’s is now leveraging the most famous sport in the world, football. On March 24, 2022, the company announced that it is sponsoring the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 which will take place from November 21 to December 18, 2022.
Through this sponsorship, Byju’s will get the rights to the 2022 FIFA World Cup marks, emblem and assets and the ability to run promotions.
Conclusion
The major takeaway from Byju’s marketing strategy is that you should focus on your target audience and brand presence.
If you see their marketing strategy from the beginning you will notice that they were directly speaking to students and parents. They made students understand that they can turn their boring studying patterns into exciting ones.
The company also understood that even though students are their end consumers, parents are the ones who will spend money on their packages.
Most parents feel that their children shouldn’t use mobile phones and the internet for studying. The company knew that if they didn’t break this myth they would never succeed. That is why they launched the ‘Keep Learning’ campaign where they explained the benefits of studying online.
In India, people are in love with cricket and acting. That is why they made Shahrukh Khan their brand ambassador and sponsored Indian cricket Jersey and became ICC’S Global Partner. This made Byju’s a household name and people started trusting the brand.
All these things show that they had studied the Indian market and the psychology of people carefully. So, next time when you are making a marketing strategy for your business first understand your target audience’s needs and behaviour patterns.
💻
List of the Best Laptops in India for Office and Personal use
List of the Best Laptops in India for Office and Personal use
The List has been curated keeping in mind the requirements for a professional/student which are Performance, Display, Operating system, Design, Ports & Connectivity. So what you are waiting for? Check the list now to find the perfect laptop for yourself.
The worldwide education sector is seeing a major shift towards online platforms in the quickly changing field of educational technology (EdTech), where digital transformation impacts the future of learning. As the need for customized and easily accessible learning experiences grows, EdTech is essential in meeting the many needs of students in today’s dynamic learning environment.
In the evolving EdTech landscape, Toppr stands out as a dynamic platform, redefining learning by placing students at its core. It addresses the changing demands of learners in the digital era by exploring the larger EdTech context. Toppr anticipates a time when learning is an immersive experience and responds to the demands of education today with tailored learning paths and creative solutions.
In this article, let’s explore the world of Toppr—its founders, business and revenue model, funding, growth, and more
Even amidst the unprecedented times of the Covid19, one sector that has seen exponential growth is the EdTech industry. With the nationwide lockdown, as announced at the end of March, and many other successive lockdowns and strictures in numerous Indian metropolitan cities, most industries faced severe roadblocks to barely run their operations let alone, maintain or improve profitability. However, amidst the pandemic, online education and e-learning platforms have seen astonishing adoption and growth. This, however, is not surprising because the educational institutions are shut, making 1.5 billion students resort to a variety of digital education sites like Toppr to ensure learning continues. The company had seen good growth before it was acquired by Byju’s on July 24, 2021, in a deal consisting of cash and equity shares, as it acquired Great Learning.
According to a report by BARC India and Nielson, there has been a 30% increase in the time spent on education apps on smartphones since the lockdown. The Edtech sector worth Rs 15,000 crore, has been battling challenges with the low B2C market penetration. The current surge of usage is thus, proving to be pivotal.
Edtech startups are attracting many more investors in the post-Covid19 world, thanks to the increased adoption of digital learning during the lockdown. The learning app Toppr focused on students in classes 5 to 12 and had managed to raise around $112.1 million till July 29, 2020, it’s Series D funding round. Toppr had previously competed with unicorn companies like Byju, Unacademy, Vedantu, Meritnation and more. However, after it was acquired by the edtech giant, Toppr’s revenue declined. The revenue of Toppr noticeably shrunk by 40% in FY21, as per the reports dated January 19, 2022.
After the lockdown subsided, and the coronavirus became less active in terms of potency and the people affected, the edtech sector has been seeing a huge downfall. Layoffs or job cuts and decreased security now wrap the edtech domain. So, here’s learning about when Toppr was founded, how it has served in the pandemic, Toppr’s funding, Toppr’s business model, Toppr revenue, valuation and more.
Toppr is a Mumbai-basedEdtech startup, which had seen a 100% growth in paid users on a monthly basis, with free user engagement witnessing a 100% spike. The company was founded in 2013 and offered questions, solutions, concepts, practice tests, videos, and more to students. It also prepared them for competitive entrance exams such as IIT-JEE mains, BITSAT, and NEET.
When the platform announced free access to live classes and video classes, the CEO and Founder of Toppr, Zishaan Hyath said, “in the view of the evolving situation around the Covid19 pandemic, many schools are shut, hence why we are making Toppr live classes completely free for all students in classes 5 to 12. Besides that, our video classes have always been available as a free learning resource”.
Growth of Toppr During Covid Pandemic
Toppr Operational Revenue FY18-FY21
The Edtech firms have also taken to the digital media to acquire users and inform people about the free live classes on offer. There had been a 128% growth in digital ad spending by edtech apps during the lockdown, as per the BARC Nielson report. It is not just the big players that spent on advertising as they also acquired an impressive count of users abroad.
Amid Covid, there were more than a dozen Edtech startups including Byju’s, Vedantu, etc., that have raised funding as investors through platforms that have registered strong growth during the pandemic. The learning sessions on its app per month had also witnessed a 2x growth, which was 14 to 15 million before Covid and became 32 million post-lockdown.
Toppr already had around 60,000 students on its learning platform and was aggressively seeking to bring around 2.4 lakh students onboard. The Edtech segment is likely to be on a roll ahead as investors globally are expected to put $87 billion in the world market over the next 10 years. The Indian market is also believed to grow at over 20% per annum to hit $2 billion sizes by 2021.
Though Toppr, which is now a part of Byju’s, showed good growth in FY20’s financials when the company recorded its operational revenues at Rs 84.3 crore from Rs 56.4 crore, which it saw in FY19, FY21’s revenues for Toppr dipped by 40% to stand at Rs 50.6 crore. The last known Toppr valuation was over $100 mn, when it was sold to Byju’s.
The company had emerged as the highest traffic destination for K-12 learning and hosted over 1 million sessions every day. The community of 50,000 educators from across the country had contributed to the platform with over 35 lakh learning pieces, including questions, solutions, concepts, games, and videos curated for the students.
This is was because the annual subscription for the academic year 2020 to 2021 on Toppr started at Rs 20,000, which is cheaper than its competitors. For example, Vedantu’s annual subscription for all subjects for a class 10 student costs Rs 48,599. Given the high costs, the penetration of Edtech platforms was limited, which is why Toppr decided to bring down the cost of their subscription to get more users to the platform.
Some of the well-known competitors of Toppr
Furthermore, the company changed its product strategy and created packages of shorter duration to help people tide over the current crisis. Toppr now has a 3 month and six-month package, starting at just Rs 3000. Both Toppr and Byju’s have registered an increase in paid users during the lockdown, Toppr has seen a four-fold increase, while Byju’s has seen its paid subscriptions double. However, things toppled in FY21, when the company’s operational revenue plunged by 40%.
Apart from the main product, which is the school learning app, Toppr also spends on teaching coding to kids and their school operating system (OS) built for teachers and administrators. Toppr School OS is an app for schools and teachers through which they can map curriculum, plan lessons and manage class timetables, automate attendance, assign homework.
Toppr school is an artificial intelligence-based Operating System to run “in school” and “afterschool” learning, creating a standardized and personalized experience. This helps in continuing to engage and explore various features and includes parents and students who are trying online learning as a go-to learning resource in these difficult times.
It also helps in taking tests, correcting test papers, etc. during or after school hours to save time. On the other hand, the coding product, which is called Toppr codr, launched recently, is another opportunity for the company to raise at least $50 million, if let’s say, the overall opportunity for us in digital learning is around $200 million.
Toppr raised a total of $112.1M in funding over 11 rounds. The latest funding of Toppr was raised on Jul 29, 2020, from a Series D round as edtech startups continue to benefit from the pandemic-driven online learning boom. This last round of Toppr funding was worth $44.31 mn. A Dubai-based investment firm, Foundation Holdings, led the fresh investments into the Mumbai-based e-learning platform. Existing investors such as Kaizen Private Equity also participated, according to a statement.
Date
Name of the Funding Round
Deal Value
Lead Investors
July 29, 2020
Series D
$44.31 mn
Foundation Holdings
June 12, 2020
Series C
$189.90K
Kaizenvest
April 10, 2019
Debt Financing
$5.57 mn
Milestone Trustee Services
December 19, 2018
Series C
$35 mn
–
May 9, 2018
Debt Financing
$1.96 mn
Alteria Capital
October 23, 2017
Series B
$5.69 mn
–
April 24, 2017
Venture Round
$336K
WGG International
October 30, 2015
Debt Financing
$2 mn
–
May 7, 2015
Series B
$10 mn
Eight Roads Ventures, Helion Ventures, Elevation Capital
May 24, 2014
Seed Round
$2 mn
–
Toppr – Business and Revenue Model
The Toppr business model is similar to a freemium business model, which remains the same even after it is acquired by the edtech giant, Byju’s. The company offers free live and offline classes, which can be availed full-fledged if the users go for paid subscriptions. The majority of the Toppr income comes from the classes and their subscription fees. The Toppr revenues witnessed a 3X growth between 2016-2019, where revenues received from the students from 5th-12th grade was equally split.
Toppr – Growth and Revenues
The operating revenues of Toppr grew by 49.5% to $11.44 mn (Rs 84.3 crore) during FY20 from $7.65 mn (Rs 56.4 crore) earned in FY19. Furthermore, the income from financial assets of Toppr also witnessed a 46% growth to nearly $814K (Rs 6 crore) during FY20.
Looking at the side of expenses of the company, Toppr spent around $27.63 mn (Rs 203.7 crore) in total during FY20. Thus, it has registered a 31.6% increase when compared to the aggregate costs, which were Rs 154.8 crore during FY19. Coming to the unit level, Toppr has spent Rs 2.41 to earn a single rupee of revenue during FY20, which can be stated as a marginal improvement from what it was during FY19.
However, it is evident that Toppr failed to save its scale in terms of its financial performance in FY21 when BYJU’S acquired edtech startup reported a 6.2X of cash outflow, which increased from Rs 20.74 crore in FY20 to Rs 128.07 crore during FY21. The revenue of the company in FY20 was recorded to be Rs 84.32 crore, which plunged by 40%, thereby recorded at Rs 50.6 crore. The company has also been noted to have lost Rs 128.3 crore in FY21, which increased by 13.1%.
Coming to the unit level, Toppr spent Rs 3.54 to earn a single rupee of revenue. This is reported to be around 46.3% more in contrast to what Toppr spent (Rs 2.42) during FY20. Besides, the acquisition of the company might also be a result of Toppr’s inability to raise follow-on capital, and to scale.
Toppr – Layoffs
Toppr has announced that it would be firing close to 300 employees as of June 30, 2022. This news came when BYJU’S owned WhiteHat Jr. has already reported laying off around 300 employees. The Toppr layoffs would be close to 300 with immediate effect, and this can also go up to 500 later on, according to some reports.
FAQs
When was Toppr founded and who is the founder of Toppr?
Toppr edtech startup has been founded by Zishaan Hayath and Hemanth Goteti in 2013.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by WhiteHat Jr.
Coding, as we know, is the language of computers.
The world has changed today for good and coding drove a significant part of the change. From a set of instructions to the machines called computers, coding has now turned into something familiar, a language that is similar to the other languages we can speak or write, one of our native languages.
Technology, computers, and coding sprawl along such a large and significant part of the human civilization that we simply cannot imagine us living without our dear machines.
Nowadays, we not only use coding to make the computers understand what we think but with it, we innovate, invent and demystify the world of riddles we are living in!
If coding interests you, then there is WhiteHat Jr. It simply reveres coding.
WhiteHat Jr. is an online coding platform specially designed for kids between the age group of 6 to 14 years. The company also extends numerous trials for its students for free app design. With WhiteHat Jr, kids can now sit back at their homes comfortably and learn from the demo classes. WhiteHat Jr was acquired by Byju’s in August of 2020, but even after that, the company has been operating as an independent entity.
Let’s go through the WhiteHat Jr. success story and know about the Whitehatjr, its founders, Whitehat Jr fees, competitors, revenue, business model, funding & more here in this article.
WhiteHat Jr is the leading computer programming learning website for kids to code. It is a platform that connects kids with the top coding teachers. The fundamentals of coding reasoning, algorithmic and structure thinking are taught to the kids for creative outputs at WhiteHat Jr.
WhiteHat Jr – Startup Story
Though WhiteHat Jr was there as a company it got known to almost all of us when its present parent company, BYJU’S acquired it for $300 million in an all-cash deal on August 5, 2020.
Moving to the startup story of the brand, WhiteHat Jr. Founder and Former CEO, Karan Bajaj, traced the foundation of WhiteHat Jr. to one of his deeply personal experiences with which he wanted to bring a change to the world.
Bajaj was a father of two daughters back then, and he felt that technology, truly, is bringing paradigm shifts in every possible industry, and therefore, his daughters also need to rein in the power of technology to absorb the upcoming shifts in their workplaces and their lives. Therefore, he wanted his daughters to be always at the centre of creating technology and coding. Besides, he also went through research that claim that if kids are used to coding from an early age, they tend more experimentative and creative. All of these factors worked at the back of Bajaj’s mind and propelled him to create an organization that will act as an institution for coding for children and adults.
Karan had MIT and TUFTS in his mind but founding one such organization was certainly difficult, with his passion and dedication, he finally founded WhiteHat Jr in 2018
This company was founded in 2018 by the former Discovery Networks CEO (Karan Bajaj). This platform was planned to empower children. When Karan approached the investors to raise funding for his brand, they were surprised as he was pitching without a working product. Then, he explained to them that the investment thesis had already changed since 2015.
WhiteHat Jr – Mission and Vision
The mission and vision of WhiteHat Jr are to “empower a whole generation to become creators versus consumers of technology.”
WhiteHat Jr – Founder And Team
Karan Bajaj is the founder of the company WhiteHat Jr. and had also been the CEO of the company before announcing his resignation on August 4, 2021. He also led Byju’s Future School, a key element of the company’s international expansion for a year, after WhiteHat Jr. was acquired by the Edtech giant, Byju’s on August 5, 2020. Bajaj had served as the CEO of Discovery Networks India before he stepped down in 2018 to fully focus on WhiteHat Jr., which he founded in the same year.
Aside from his professional career associated with his company, he is also a renowned Indian author, whose first two novels, Keep Off the Grass (2008) and Johnny Gone Down (2010), have been best-sellers.
Bajaj initially got a BE degree in Mechanical Engineering from The Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra and then went on to pursue an MBA in Marketing from The Indian Institute of Management(IIM), Bangalore. He started off his corporate career with The Procter and Gamble Company, where he served as an Assistant Brand Manager. He assumed various leading positions in a range of distinguished companies including Ariel India, Herbal Essences, Kraft Foods, Boston Consulting Group, and more before he founded WhiteHat Jr. in 2018.
Karan Bajaj was born in 1979 in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, and spent various stages of his childhood in different places, owing to his father’s transferable job.
Karan Bajaj, CEO, WhiteHat Jr
Karan Bajaj quit WhiteHat Jr. on August 4, 2021. The founder and CEO of WhiteHat Jr., has made way for Trupti Mukker to take his position. Trupti had served successfully as the head of the customer experience and delivery in BYJU’S and is declared the CEO of the company.
After the acquisition of WhiteHat Jr. by Byju’s in 2020, Bajaj continued to be the CEO of the company and resigned exactly after 1 year.
The company founder and ex-CEO Karan Bajaj previously mentioned that the company had 400 employees and 1,500 teachers in 2020 and disclosed the company’s plans to double its employees and teachers.
WhiteHat Jr – Name, Tagline and Logo
“Your Own Personal Teacher Live, Online Classes” is the tagline of the company.
WhiteHat Jr – Logo
WhiteHat Jr – Business Model
The business model of the company is particularly based on teaching coding to young kids. The Edtech startup has now extended the students’ grades and is now accepting students from grades 1st to 12th grade. The company targets children and guardians to offer various programming courses for a better future in this digital environment. The teaching format of WhiteHat Jr. is live 1:1 online classes. Furthermore, the company also offers free trial classes.
WhiteHat Jr’s portal has got more than 700,000 registrations and around 7000 classes are conducted daily routine for kids. Each class conducted costs around INR 600 to 700. There are different course levels, which are priced at Rs 5,999, Rs 29,999, Rs 89,999 and many more. The student resurrection rate for the paid classes is around 75%. Suddenly, the refund fee has become 3% which is very low for an Indian Edtech company.
WhiteHat Jr – Funding And Investors
The company has raised a total amount of $387.3 million in funding over the 3 funding rounds it has seen.
Date
Transaction Name
Money Raised
Lead Investors
August 3, 2021
–
$376 million
Byju’s
September 9, 2019
Series A
$10 million
Nexus Venture Partners, Omidyar Network
April 16, 2019
Seed Round
$1.21 million
Nexus Venture Partners, Omidyar Network
The company is funded by 3 investors. Byju’s infused $376 million in its latest towards its acquiree on August 3, 2021.
WhiteHat Jr – Growth and Revenue
Before the lockdown began, WhiteHat Jr. went from Rs 1 crore to Rs 10 crores in revenue. Since the lockdown, the value started doubling. When BYJU’s approached in June, the revenue of the company was running at $75 million. The revenue run rate was reported at $150 million as soon as the acquisition was completed. Then, in August, the first month after the acquisition, the rate was again reported to be $220 million. The revenue of the company has surely seen quite a growth over the years. The company had listed revenue of INR 19 crore from its operations in FY20, which stood at only INR 6.7 lakh in FY19.
Byju’s had owned WhiteHat Jr. in a deal worth $300 mn in August 2020, which made FY21 a special year for WhiteHat Jr. Apart from the Byju’s acquisition of WhiteHat, the startup also witnessed a surge in its revenue under the ed-tech juggernaut.
WhiteHat Jr. Revenue Breakdown
The revenue from operations in FY21 was recorded to have surged by 25.5X to be INR 483.9 crore. Around 99% of its revenue came from the course fee it charges from the students, which increased 25X from INR 478.3 crore during FY21 from INR 19 crore in the previous fiscal. Apart from that, WhiteHat Jr. obtained INR 3.36 cr in revenue from the sale of goods or course materials that it offers students whereas another INR 2.27 cr in income was received from other operating revenues. Also, WhiteHat Jr. received INR 74 lakh as interest income.
WhiteHat Jr. Revenue Verticals
FY21
FY20
Course Fee
INR 478.34 cr
INR 19.01 cr
Sale of Goods
INR 3.36 cr
–
Other Operating Revenue
INR 2.27 cr
–
WhiteHat Jr. Expenses Breakdown
WhiteHat Jr.’s expenses also surged along with its scale, which witnessed a 31X increase to INR 2175.2 cr in FY21 from INR 69.7 cr in FY20. Looking at the expense verticals, the company lost quite some money to arrange for the employee benefits, which contributed 42.9% of the total WhiteHat Jr. expenditure during FY21. The costs for the employee benefits witnessed a 27X rise from INR 33.5 crore to INR 932.4 crore. The costs for the advertising and promotions of the company rose by 43.6X to INR 891 crore from INR 20.42 crore. Nearly all of its expenses verticals saw a rise including support services, IT and communication costs, legal, professional, and recruitment fees, and more. Here’s a brief look at the expense breakdown of WhiteHat Jr:
WhiteHat Jr. Expense Verticals
FY21
FY20
Employee Benefit Expenses
INR 932.37 cr
INR 33.50 cr
Advertising and Promotional Expenses
INR 890.93 cr
INR 20.42 cr
Support Service
INR 110.54 cr
INR 2.28 cr
IT and Communication Expenses
INR 81.39 cr
INR 2.69 cr
Legal and Professional Fees
INR 44.23 cr
INR 3.80 cr
Recruitment Expenses
INR 39.76 cr
INR 2.71 cr
Other Operating and Admin Expenses
INR 75.98 cr
INR 4.30 cr
WhiteHat Jr. Financials
Looking at the overall financials of WhiteHat Jr. in FY21, the company operating revenues surged by 25.5X, and its total expenses jumped by around 31X, which made the losses jump too. The annual losses of WhiteHat Jr. soared by 34.5X from INR 48.95 crore to INR 1690.5 crore. The unit economics of the company states that WhiteHat Jr. had spent INR 4.49 to earn a single rupee of revenue in FY21. The EBITDA margins of the company worsened too, which was recorded at -338.31% in FY20 and became -235.17% in FY21.
WhiteHat Jr. Financials FY20-FY21 Comparison
WhiteHat Jr – Partnerships
WhiteHat Jr has witnessed a number of partnerships throughout the years of its existence. Here’s a review of some of the most noteworthy collaborations of the company:
WhiteHat Jr. partnered with software giant Microsoft to offer a “Code with Minecraft” course for the students on December 23, 2021. This association of Microsoft and WhiteHat will ensure that the students master important coding concepts with the help of a highly curated curriculum based on Minecraft.
WhiteHat Jr. collaborated with FutureSkills Prime, which is a combined initiative for digital skilling of students by Nasscom and the Electronics and IT Ministry on September 2, 2021.
The company, in partnership with 500+ schools, declared on 3rd August 2021, that it would extend the coding curriculum to the students, the number of whom are expected to be around more than 1.25 lakh.
WhiteHat Jr – Advertisements and Campaigns
WhiteHat Jr has been quite infamous in terms of the advertisements it has encouraged all the while since it came into being. The advertisements of the Byju’s-owned startup were allegedly based on imaginary kids and their unreal geniuses after they attain WhiteHat Junior’s academic programs. For example, in one of its advertisements, a 7-year-old has been projected as an app developer and a TedX speaker. This has largely been condemned by all including the ASCI, who had processed around 15 ads from WhiteHat Jr and has identified that 5 of these ads are in potential violation of the ASCI Code, which eventually led to the pulling off of such ads.
Furthermore, there also have been numerous aggressive claims of Whithat Jr via its social media platform. However, when they came on the radar of ASCI, they were already very old and most of them were already taken off. However, ever since BYJU’S acquired WhiteHat Jr, Byju Raveendran himself has ensured that the advertisement and the messaging of the brand would be proper and would address the mass as well as the kids properly.
Refreshing its promotional efforts, Whitehat Jr. has seen to be concentrating on the real kids and the real apps they are capable of building. The campaigns that WhiteHat Jr launched under #RealKidsOfWHJr and #YoungAchieversOfWHJr focused on the real-world applications of coding featured by real kids. The coding platform that was acquired by Edech giant Byju’s also demonstrated a change in its social media activities, where Whitehat Jr now started posting the feats of real children. Furthermore, Whitehat Junior also collaborated with multiple celebrities including Hrithik Roshan, Mahesh Babu and R Madhavan after its Coding Seekho Duniya Badlo campaign went live on TV in the first week of November 2020.
The latest advertisement that Whitehat Junior launched featured Hrithik Roshan. Promoted as #PickItUp, the popular Bollywood actor was seen picking up the guitar. This Whitehat Jr ad is designed to wipe off the notion that age is a bar along with encouraging the students and others to choose music classes from Whitehat Jr and make music.
#PickItUp Campaign
WhiteHat Jr – Challenges and Controversies
WhiteHat Jr has seen its fair share of challenges since it was founded, which were associated with the scaling and growth of the company. WhiteHat Jr came under the radar of the Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) after the startup made false claims of imaginary kids who learned coding from WhiteHat Jr and landed jobs at Google and other organizations, became TedX speakers, and more. WhiteHat Jr also sued Pradeep Poonia, who shared posts against Whitehatjr.
Pradeep Poonia Defamation Case
Pradeep Poonia claimed that WhiteHat Jr.’s advertisements are all false and based on imaginary characters like Wolf Gupta, who the company has shown landing a job at Google after learning to code from the Karan Bajaj-led startup then. Poonia also referred to the startup’s instructors as “uneducated” and “housewives”. Though the company later had to remove the advertisements involving Wolf, WhiteHat Jr. filed a defamation case worth Rs 20 crore against Poonia’s statements and later withdrew the same. In the last court hearing, the court prevented Pradeep Poonia from:
Telecasting and transmitting any information received by hacking the servers of WhiteHat Jr.
Helping others take down the content of WhiteHat Jr.
Using his social media handle WhiteHat Sr. on Youtube
Using the URLs using the name “WhiteHat”
Keeping the tweets posted on September 12, 2020, that contains defamatory comments on WhiteHat Jr.
Keeping the tweets posted on September 5, 2020, where Poonia has called WhiteHat Jr.’s business a “pyramid scheme” and other tweets he shared in September and October of 2020
In another case, the company also filed a defamation suit against Dr Aniruddha Malpani. All of these had already cost the company much in terms of its revenue and reputation.
Employees’ Resignation
More than 800 employees dropped their resignation letters in around 60 days’ time after the company asked them to join work from the office within a month. Employees from across teams including the coding, sales and math department resigned from the office after being asked to join offices from their respective locations. On March 18, 2022, WhiteHat Jr. sent an email informing them to join their offices within April 18, 2022, which is why the employees have voluntarily put down their papers. Employees termed this decision of the company as a cost-cutting exercise.
Yes, it surely can be a method of cutting costs where we have already seen the bad market conditions that the ed-tech companies are dealing with. Unacademy and Vedantu, two other unicorns from the ed-tech space together have already laid off close to 1200 employees. Lido Learning is another ed-tech company that has laid off around 150 employees recently.
WhiteHat Jr. Layoffs
Byju’s-owned WhiteHat Jr. has laid off somewhere close to 300 employees in its recent batch of layoffs, as confirmed on June 29, 2022. The layoff exercise, which went through the whole of the 3rd week of June has led to the trimming of the WhiteHat Jr. workforce that was engaged in code-teaching and the sales team of WhiteHat, where some of them even worked in Brazil. The sales, operations and marketing team was mainly affected by this round of job cuts. Reports claim that the total count of laid-off employees can also go as high as 600. Business restructuring is sighted as the reason behind these layoffs. The laid-off employees were asked to submit their office laptops and IDs on the same day, as the reports went.
The edtech sector, importantly, has been hammered lately by the layoffs in the post-Covid-19 period. The Covid-19 period, however, has seen problems like the Great Resignation. Apart from the edtech companies of India and various other companies and startups laying off their employees in huge chunks fearing a funding winter in the country, many other companies, which feature among the top companies of the world, have also pronounced their layoffs in 2022.
The top competitors of WhiteHat Jr are Coding Blocks, Coding with Kids and Camp K12.
Coding Blocks Pvt Ltd
It is the top #2 competitor of WhiteHat Jr. The company is headquartered in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 2014. It operates in the Educational Technology industry.
Coding with Kids
It is also one of the competitors of WhiteHat Jr. The company is headquartered in Redmond, WA. It was founded in 2013. It conducts classes and camps for kids between the age of 5 to 18.
K12
It is the top #3 competitor of WhiteHat Jr. Headquartered in the US, K12 was founded in April 2000. It is a company that offers online schooling and curricula. It is an organization that provides education designed for the people searching for it online.
The company is currently ramping up its women-only teacher base in India. Presently, the platform is having over 7000 educators and is actively recruiting teachers for all its core disciplines and music from all around the country. The company is eyeing to make its teacher-base to 20,000 shortly. The continuous ramp-up base is aiming towards matching the growing base of students across countries like India, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the UK.
FAQs
Who founded WhiteHat Jr?
Karan Bajaj founded WhiteHat Jr., who was also the CEO of the company before he resigned on August 4, 2021. He is an Indian author and technology entrepreneur.
What is WhiteHat Jr Business Model?
The business model of the company is on teaching coding to young kids. The Edtech startup has now extended the students grades to 12th from grade 1. The company targets children and guardians to offer various programming courses for a better future in this digital environment. The teaching format is a live 1:1 online class. It also offers free trial classes.
Who are the Top Competitors of WhiteHat Jr?
The top competitors of WhiteHat Jr are Coding Blocks, Coding with Kids, and Camp K12.
How much is WhiteHat Jr Revenue?
WhiteHat Jr. recorded a revenue of $63.39 mn in FY21.
What are Whitehat Jr fees?
The WhiteHat Jr. fees start from around Rs 6500 only and go up. The Whitehat Jr fees per month depend on the duration and the complexity of the course it offers.
What are Whitehat jr free courses?
Whitehat Jr has free/trial classes that give the students an opportunity to test the kind of classes/lectures they receive before going for WhiteHat Junior.
Nitin Konde
