After prolonged audit delay, Byju’s reports $575 million losses in 2021
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After several delays, the Indian education corporation Byju’s has now made its audited financial figures public. But the findings are unlikely to end the controversy surrounding the most valued company in the nation.
The company’s losses rose 13-fold to 45.7 billion rupees ($575 million) in the year ended 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.
According to Saurabh Daga, an analyst at London-based consultancy GlobalData Plc, in order to lower the number of its customer-facing services and keep costs in check without resorting to layoffs, the company needs to get rid of non-core assets.
Concerns about India’s consumer technology sector, where key competitors’ public valuations, like those of Zomato Ltd. And Paytm, have plummeted dramatically this year as a result of the startups’ financial difficulties, have returned.
This year, Byju Raveendran invested $400 million in his business in an effort to persuade other investors of its potential for expansion.
Byju’s now records income after the actual submission of clients’ periodic payments, as opposed to in advance, as a result of Raveendran’s accounting modifications.
According to unaudited numbers, sales for the fiscal year ending March 2022 more than doubled to about 100 billion rupees. According to Raveendran, revenue increased to 45 billion rupees in the ensuing four months, and this year, sales are anticipated to surge by more than 50%.
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 would actually materialize.
The most recent estimate for Byju’s provided by market researcher CB Insights was $22 billion.
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