Byju’s, an Indian education company, has finally released its audited financial results after months of delay. The dispute raging around the most valuable startup in the country is not likely to be resolved by the findings, though. The company’s losses rose 13-fold to 45.7 billion rupees ($575 million) in the year ended in March 2021 as it raised spending to sustain growth. Sales, at 24.3 billion rupees, did not significantly change from the prior year.
Byju’s attributed the result to changes to company accounting practises that led to revenue being delayed to later years. It also provided unaudited financial data for the fiscal year that ended in March 2022 and the four months that followed, which revealed a significant increase in revenues. Investors who had followed Byju’s throughout the past two years as as it acquired a number of businesses—possibly too many—were disturbed by the spiralling losses.
In order to lower the quantity of its customer-facing services and keep costs in check without resorting to layoffs, the company needs to sell non-core assets, according to Saurabh Daga, an analyst at London-based consultancy GlobalData Plc. If it adopts such actions, he said Byju’s should be able to weather the downturn just well given its leading position and the longer-term promise of online education in a geographically dispersed country.
Byju’s firm ‘will probably need to go through a major rejig,’ Mr. Daga predicted. It ‘will have to take aggressive actions related to reducing its product offers, shedding off the businesses or apps that do not correspond with its core offerings, as well as reforming its current business development and sales processes’.
Byju’s has been under regulatory pressure to provide financial statements after missing a deadline by many months. The company experienced problems in obtaining more financing and finalising a proposed merger with a blank-check company in the US after a global technology meltdown damaged values. The startup’s financial struggles have rekindled concerns about the Indian consumer technology market, where the public valuations of major rivals like Zomato Ltd. and Paytm have plummeted this year.
Byju Raveendran put $400 million into his company this year in an effort to convince other investors of its growth prospects. According to Raveendran’s accounting changes, Byju’s now records income upon the actual submission of periodic payments from clients rather than ahead of time. Sales for the fiscal year ending in March 2022 more than doubled to about 100 billion rupees, according to unaudited numbers. Revenue increased to 45 billion rupees in the ensuing four months, and this year, sales are anticipated to surge by more than 50%, according to Raveendran.
The company’s intention to list on a US stock market through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company is ‘completely paused’ as a result of a decrease in technology valuations, he continued. Because committed capital from investors Sumeru Equity Partners and Oxshott Capital Partners totaling almost $300 million hasn’t arrived, the company has been unable to complete a planned $800 million investment round, according to Raveendran, who also said he wasn’t sure if the funds will actually materialise. The most recent estimate for Byju’s provided by market researcher CB Insights was $22 billion.
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