BYJU's set to close $250 mn funding round soon at flat valuation

Edtech major BYJU`s is in the advanced stages to raise $250 million at a flat valuation (at $22 billion the company last announced) as it struggles to repay a $1.2 billion term loan and turn profitable in 2023, reliable sources said on Thursday. Sources told IANS that the latest funding round is in "final stages of discussion and will be closed soon within few weeks".

BYJU`s declined to immediately comment on the development. However, the $250 million round may also come at a lower valuation too, according to sources. Global investment group Prosus last year put the fair value of its 9.67 per cent stake in BYJU`S at $578 million, which technically puts the current valuation of the edtech major at nearly $6 billion. However, Prosus had changed its accounting treatment for BYJU`S and in the subsequent reporting periods, "the company will be accounted for as an investment".

DealStreetAsia was first to report about the latest funding round by BYJU`s. In order to turn profitable, BYJU`s is winding up coding platform WhiteHat Jr, which it acquired for $300 million, as part of restructuring and cut costs. The company had said it was "merely optimising it". 

Edtech firm BYJU`s also appears not to be able to meet its March 2023 deadline to achieve group-level profitability, as it envisioned in its earnings in October last year and its quarterly results in the current fiscal year are delayed once again. Sources earlier told IANS that the company, which has sacked thousands of employees to date and has taken deeper cuts, is still unable to achieve profitability at group level amid mounting losses. In October after firing 2,500 employees and consolidating its business in the country, Mrinal Mohit, CEO, BYJU`S India business, had said that "these measures will help us achieve profitability in the defined time frame of March 2023".

At a group level, BYJU`s had said its top priority is to achieve "overall profitability by March 2023". However, this appears impossible now with the company still struggling to stem growing losses.

Between April-July 2022, the company logged a revenue of Rs 4,530 crore. Post that, there has been no communication from the company about the pending results. The edtech unicorn reported a loss of Rs 4,588 crore for the fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2021.