According to sources with knowledge of the situation, the edtech company Byju’s has begun terminating more employees from its workforce. The Bengaluru-based company has experienced mass layoffs three times since October of last year, and twice in 2023.
Approximately 500–1,000 employees are anticipated to be impacted by the choice, according to sources. “Besides Byju’s, senior employees including leadership at Whitehat Jr also asked to resign voluntarily,” said one of the sources.
Numerous departments have been affected by the layoffs, including logistics, training, sales, post-sales, and finance. The first to report the development was Moneycontrol.
Over 4,000 employees have been let go by Byju’s in all three phases. The Morning Context reported in October that Byju’s would fire 12,000 workers over the following year (2023). However, Byju’s disputed the figures at the time.
The change occurred as Byju’s was dealing with a loan default and intense public and media scrutiny. It filed a complaint with the New York Supreme Court after failing to make debt installment payments to contest the acceleration of the $1.2 billion Term Loan B (TLB) and to have the lender Redwood disqualified for its predatory lending practices. Redwood is accused by the Tiger Global-backed company of buying a sizable chunk of the loan while specializing in distressed debt trading.
A group of lenders, including Redwood, hit back at Byju’s, calling the lawsuit meritless and an attempt to get out of its obligations.
In the wake of stagnant growth and difficult market conditions, Byju’s has been finding it difficult to raise new funds, but it managed to raise $250 million via a structured credit transaction from US-based alternative investment firm Davidson Kempner Capital Management. Byju’s also experienced a valuation markdown, with BlackRock cutting its valuation by nearly half to $11.5 billion, similar to other overvalued companies. The market is open to raising $1 billion at a flat valuation of $22 billion, according to media reports.
