While the employees of Byju’s have received their January salaries before the promised date, they have also been apprised of the financial struggles the company has been undergoing.
Byju Raveendran, founder and CEO, Byju’s, has written to the employees admitting that he has had to go to great lengths to be able to pay the salaries of the staff members, and that the challenges have been mounting with time.
Raveendran reportedly acknowledged being distressed by the challenges but also admitted to having managed to overcome them. Media reports peg the payroll cost of the edtech company at about Rs 70 crore a month!
However, Raveendran also assured the employees that once the old dues are cleared and short-term growth is achieved, the company will become operationally profitable.
Byju’s has floated rights issues to raise $200 million at more than 99 per cent lower valuation. It is pertinent to mention here that it had reached a peak valuation of $22 million in March 2022. How the company is able to deal with its challenges will be determined by the success of this rights issue.
The company had let go of over 2,500 staff members, with at least 500 being terminated in the most recent round of layoffs. The workforce, which was about 50,000 strong in 2022, has been reduced to about 37,000, as per media reports.
