Most of the fired employees where in the company’s code-learning and sales teams. Eighty was working at the company’s office in Brazil, where Byju’s entered last April as part of its ‘Future School’ offering.
Byju’s in August 2020 acquired WhiteHat Jr., which offers courses in coding to children, for $300 million.
“Whitehat Junior is focused on providing quality education to young students while continuing to build a strong business. To align with our business priorities, we are optimizing our team to accelerate results and best position the business for long-term growth,” a Byju’s spokesperson told ET’s questions. said in response.
The company said the sacked employees were offered one month’s salary as part of their severance.
ETtechIllustration: Rahul Awasthi
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According to regulatory filings filed with, Whitehat Jr. reported a total loss of Rs 1,690 crore for FY2011 Ministry of Corporate Affairs,
The firm’s revenue from operations stood at Rs 483.9 crore for the year, while total expenses increased to Rs 2,175.2 crore.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that Byju’s has delayed payment of its biggest acquisition, Aakash Educational Services Ltd, which it bought for $950 million in April 2021.
The layoffs at WhiteHat Jr come as global macros continue to impact investment opportunities for Indian startups. Several edtech companies including Unacademy Group, Lido Learning, Vedantu and others have laid off employees over the past few months to increase their runway.
In May, EdTech Unicorn
Vedantu lays off 624 full time and contract employeesF in a week.
Edtech firm Frontero also laid off about 145 full-time and contractual employees, about 30% of its workforce, in May. In June, Info Edge-backed Uday said it was shutting down as demand for online learning is declining.
Last week, Gaurav Munjal, co-founder of Unacademy, whose company has laid off over 1,000 on-roll and contract employees this year,
Told employees in an email that “winter has come”And that cost-cutting will be the main focus of the company as there will be a shortage of funds for at least the next 12 to 18 months.
Over the past few months, major venture firms including Sequoia Capital, Y Combinator and Binext have cautioned the founders of their portfolio firms about a global slowdown in funding, asking them to focus on profitability and efficiency in their core business Is.
To cope with the falling demand for online learning, many Indian edtech majors such as Byju’s, Unacademy and the newly formed Unicorn Physicswala are venturing off-line and opening physical centres.