Many of these employees are contractual staff of on-ground sales teams, from third-party staffers such as Randstad and Channelplay, these people said, requesting anonymity.
Byju’s hires or releases contractual employees on the basis of seasonality and demand for the business.
ETtechWhile ET could not ascertain the number of employees affected by this move, a report by news site Morning Context pegged it at 1,000.
The cost correction comes right on the heels of the company skipping a quarterly interest payment of about $40 million earlier this week on a $1.2 billion term loan, which is the subject of litigation.
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“It is no surprise that Byju’s is looking to cut costs now, especially when growth has completely stalled, and the focus for them is on building a hybrid play with (test-prep subsidiary) Aakash. It seems like a hybrid strategy is one of the last straws left for online edtech as it gets harder to sell online courses,” said a person who spoke to ET on condition of anonymity.
A Byju’s spokesperson declined to comment.
The layoffs add to back-to-back cost-cutting exercises Byju’s has initiated since last year to streamline operations, with digital K-12 (kindergarten to grade 12) education businesses finding it difficult to acquire new customers.
Also read | Byju’s lenders scrap talks to restructure $1.2 billion loan
Earlier this year, Byju’s dismissed around 1,000 employees including many in senior strategy, technology and product roles.
Last October, the company sacked at least 2,500 employees on its rolls in one of the largest headcount “rationalisation” exercises by an Indian startup.
Growing troubles
Earlier this week, Byju’s had sued lender Redwood, an American investment management firm, and its related entities, in the New York Supreme Court for accelerating the repayment of its term loan.
The edtech firm also “elected” to not make any further payments to the lenders of the term loan till the matter is settled in court.
The General Atlantic-backed company has been fighting another lawsuit in a Delaware court against lenders who have proposed to take over its US entity, Byju’s Alpha, by putting their representative in charge after a default earlier this year.
Its move to go to court came after weeks of negotiations with the lenders to finalise new terms for the loan failed.
Last month, BlackRock, a minority shareholder with less than a 1% stake in Byju’s, wrote down the company’s valuation to $8.29 billion, in a filing dated March 31, 2023 reviewed by ET. It was the second time that BlackRock had marked down its valuation in recent months.
Byju’s to lay off more staff in fresh cost-cutting drive - Economic Times
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