After facing a backlash for its decision to shut operations in Thiruvanthapuram, edtech startup Byju’s on Wednesday reversed its decision to exit Kerala.
In October, the startup had announced that it would discontinue its Kerala operations, a move that was likely to impact more than 140 employees, to reduce redundancies. It had, however, assured all impacted employees they could choose to be rehired at any centre in India within the next 12 months.
Byju’s employees, along with Prathidhwani, a welfare association for IT employees, had requested Kerala’s labour minister V Sivankutty to intervene and ask the company to revise its exit policy, which seemed to have worked for now.
“Following a detailed discussion between the honourable chief minister of Kerala, P Vijayan and Byju Raveendran, founder of Byju’s, we have decided to continue operations of our TVM (Thiruvanthapuram) product development centre. As a result, our 140 associates will continue to operate from this centre. Byju Raveendran, who is from Kerala, reiterates his commitment to the state and the leadership team of Byju’s, under his guidance, will pursue a growth strategy in the state,” a Byju’s spokesperson said.
These developments come after the startup said it would “rationalise” and “optimise” its operations to turn profitable by March 2023 and plans to fire about 2,500 employees, or 5% of its total workforce, across the product, content, media, and technology teams in a “phased manner” to achieve that goal.
In an internal mail earlier, Raveendran had told employees, “I am truly sorry to those who will have to leave Byju’s. You are not just a name to me. You are not a number. You are not just 5% of my company. You are 5% of me. I know that nothing can really compensate for your loss. And I completely understand if you are upset about this … Please also know that this is not a reflection on your performance.”
While Byju’s has decided to resume operations in Kerala, it plans to shut several other offices across the country, especially in Tier-2 towns, by shuttering satellite offices in several states, as reported earlier. It is opening larger regional offices in each state instead.
The company’s decisions to reduce its cash burn comes after it saw losses surge to over `4,500 crore in FY21 on the back of revenue of `2,280 crore.
Also Read: Data Tech Labs Inc to upskill 25 lakh Indians; eyes net revenue of Rs 11 crore in FY23
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn