BYJU’s, India’s most valuable educational technology startup, has seen earnings more than double to ₹ 50.76 crore in fy20 with the sale of tablets, SD cards and books making the most of its revenue.
Byju’s independent revenue from operations of ₹ 2,110 crore came from three main businesses: tuition (₹ 144 crore), sale of educational tablets and SD cards (₹ 1,675 crore) and sale of reference books (₹ 560 crore).
The company has not yet submitted documents to the Registrar of Companies (RoC) for its financial numbers for fiscal year 21.
Byju’s (Think & Learn Pvt Ltd) had posted a (standalone) net profit of ₹ 20.16 crore and ₹ 1,281 crore in operating income in FY19, according to documents accessed by business intelligence platform Tofler.
On a consolidated basis, revenue grew more than 82% to ₹ 2,380.7 crore in FY20 over ₹ 1,306 crore in 2018-19. Byju’s losses widening to approximately ₹ 250 crore in FY20 from approximately ₹ 9 crore, as total spending more than doubled to ₹ 3,021 crore in 2019-20 from ₹ 1,376 crore in FY19.
“Independently, which is our core business, we are profitable. On a consolidated basis (which includes acquisitions), there is a loss as some of these businesses need investment to scale,” said Byju Chief Strategy Officer Anita Kishore, to PTI.
She added that the company, which has been on a wave of acquisitions with the purchase of companies such as Aakash Educational Services, Epic and Greal Learning, is aiming to register ₹ 10,000 crore in revenue in FY22.
According to the documents, educational tablets and SD cards accounted for 63.24% of the company’s turnover in fiscal year 20, while reference book sales contributed 26.51%.
Educational tablets and SD cards contributed ₹ 1,334.48 crore to the company’s revenue from operations in 2019-20, representing the largest share of Byju’s revenue, followed by reference book sales (₹ 559.4 crore) and the sale of services (₹ 71.96 crore).
Tuition contributed less than 7% of revenue at ₹ 144.17 crore during FY20.
Byju’s saw its employee benefit expenses also increase to ₹ 322.81 crore in FY20 from ₹ 255.39 crore in the previous fiscal year.
The company, in the document, said it is confident of “achieving higher revenues and profits in the coming years in this global world, as the opportunities are enormous and your company is able to explore them productively.”
She added that the company’s management has responded and effectively managed operations during the pandemic.
The edtech space has seen strong growth globally, including in India, with the COVID-19 pandemic serving as a tipping point. Many offline classes were put online to ensure continuity of education while adhering to social distancing rules.
Byju’s, which is backed by marquee investors including General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Naspers, Silver Lake and Tiger Global, is estimated to have raised about $ 1.5 billion since April last year in multiple sections.
The company has also been aggressively acquiring companies to strengthen its presence in all categories. In the past, Byju’s had acquired TutorVista and Edurite (from Pearson in 2017) and Osmo in 2019. Last year, the company had purchased the WhiteHat Jr coding training platform for $ 300 million and in April of this year, it acquired Aakash Educational Services Ltd (AESL) to strengthen its presence in the test preparation segment in the country.
In July this year, Byju’s announced the acquisition of Singapore-based Great Learning, in a transaction valued at $ 600 million (about ₹ 4,466 crore), and said it will invest an additional $ 400 million to strengthen its position in the segment. of professional and higher education.
It had also announced the acquisition of the US-based digital reading platform Epic for $ 500 million (about ₹ 3,729.8 crore), and an additional investment of $ 1 billion (approximately ₹ 7,459.7 crore) in the North American market in the same month.
