BYJU’s eyeing for triple revenue growth in FY22 halved

byjuFounder and CEO of Byju RavindranAt a startup event on Friday, the company defended roping in soccer star Lionel Messi as its global ambassador amid job cuts, saying the decision was taken six months ago.

Raveendran said the company with over 150 million learners is well on its way to profitability as it expects revenue to triple in FY22 and losses to more than halve.

The company posted a loss 4,588 crore and revenue 2,428 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2021.

co-founder of BYJU Divya Gokulnath The company had announced laying off around 2,500 people as it hopes to turn profitable by March 2023 and hire 10,000 more teachers in the coming year, adding to its current strength of 20,000 teachers.

Raveendran said that India deserves over 75,000 startups, and he sees the potential of one million entrepreneurs in the country.

“When pressured by the current environment around the company, BYJU’S stated that 261 of the company’s 300 founding employees are still with the company and are committed to BYJU’S mission,” he said.

He further said that out of the five integrations, four have been done seamlessly and are performing well.

“Aakash has grown threefold since its integration with BYJU’S,” said a company note.

On appointing Messi as its global brand ambassador, he said that the announcement coincided with only layoffs and that the decision was taken six months ago.

“It is foolish to even think that one can appoint Messi in 5-7 days. The decision to have Messi on board was taken 6 months back and the announcement could not be delayed because of the World Cup window and rules. ” They said.

Messi will not be allowed to announce any brand during the World Cup. It is just a coincidence that both the news, rationalization and onboarding of Messi happened simultaneously.”