Edtech major BYJU’s is planning to shut down coding platform WhiteHat Jr., which it acquired for $300 million, as part of restructuring and cost-cutting.
Informed sources told IANS on Thursday that WhiteHat Jr, which at its peak had over 8,000 employees across the country, now has hundreds of roles unfilled as it never picked up momentum and brought in revenue for the company.
According to people familiar with the development, BYJU’s has been in discussion at the top level to get rid of the WhiteHat Junior brand, which has faced severe criticism in the past.
However, Byju’s told IANS that they have no plans to shut it down.
“We are optimizing it only for organic and efficient growth. We are fully committed to deliver world-class educational experiences and solutions that empower students to achieve their full potential.”
The company said it is constantly evaluating and optimizing its business operations in the direction of global growth.
BYJU’s told IANS, “As an ongoing activity, we are actively evaluating all our business units to ensure that they align with our path to profitability.”
TechCrunch was the first to report the development.
BYJU’s acquired WhiteHat Jr. in July 2020 for approximately $300 million. It reported a huge loss of Rs 1,690 crore in FY21, while its expenses reached Rs 2,175 crore in FY21 – as against Rs 69.7 crore in FY2015.
In the April-May period last year, over 1,000 of its employees, including teachers who are on contract basis, and hence not full-time employees, resigned.
Later, more WhiteHat junior staff either left of their own accord or were asked to leave.
WhiteHat Jr. shut down its after-school division, which aims to take its flagship coding curriculum to one million school students by the next academic year.
It did not yield any fruitful result for offering online music lessons, guitar and piano lessons.
According to sources, BYJU’s, which was last valued at $22 billion, will not be able to meet the March 2023 deadline to achieve group-level profitability, as envisaged in its earnings release in October last year. Went.
The company, which has laid off thousands of employees and made deep cuts to date, is still unable to achieve group-level profitability amid mounting losses.
The edtech unicorn reported a loss of Rs 4,588 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2021.
– IANS
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