With A Loss Of Rs 4,500 Crore, Byju's FY21 Report Card Has Many Red Marks

Byju’s, the education technology company that is India’s most-valued start-up, today said it had earned Rs 2,428 crore in revenue in the financial year 2020-21 (FY21) translating into a loss of Rs 4,500 crore.

This is similar to the revenue figure of Rs 2,434 crore in the previous year, though the difference is that the bottom line in 2019-20 showed a profit of Rs 51 crore.

The FY21 numbers have received an unqualified report from the company’s auditor, Deloitte Haskins & Sells.

In an interview with Business Standard, the company’s founder and CEO, Byju Raveendran, said there was significant business growth in FY 21. But, since this was the first year when new revenue recognition started because of a Covid-related business model changes, almost 40 per cent of the revenue was deferred even as expenses were not.

“A good part of the FY21 revenue got deferred on account of revenue recognition changes, across the period of consumption as well as collection. Around 40 per cent of the revenue got deferred. Otherwise, the growth would have been 60 to 65 percent. For the revenue that got pushed, the expenses are already accounted for in FY21, so the loss has increased,” said Raveendran.

Byju’s also bore the impact of high-voltage acquisitions that have yet to start showing up as assets on the balance sheet. “This was the year when acquisitions increased -- fast-growing but loss-making acquisitions that are increasing the loss at the consolidated level,” Raveendran said.

Byju’s FY21 results have been the subject of intense scrutiny and speculation, coming as they are some 18 months after the period of coverage ended in March 2021.

“There has been an 18-month delay and everyone was anxious. The last six months have been the toughest for me and everyone else involved. Now the good news is that that’s over,” said Raveendran.

Raising hopes for the subsequent year, 2021-22, the company disclosed unaudited results that show nearly Rs 10,000 crore in gross revenues. Its K-12 education business is showing accelerated growth. The firm said between April - July 2022 alone, the company logged a revenue of Rs 4,530 crore.

Byju’s is on an acquisition spree in India and globally as the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of online education. Some of these deals included the $1-billion buy of New Delhi-based Aakash Educational Services and the $600-million acquisition of Singapore-headquartered Great Learning — a leading global player in professional and higher education — last year.

Other large deals included the acquisition of US-based digital reading platform Epic for $500 million last year and Mumbai-based coding start-up WhiteHat Jr for $300 million in 2020.

The firm said its acquisitions across segments over the last year have seen substantial growth. Aakash in the test prep segment and Great Learning in the higher education segment have doubled their revenues since the acquisition. Osmo and Epic! are scaling up rapidly in North America in terms of both adoption and engagement. Tynker has grown to be the largest coding community for children globally.

“Aakash and Great Learning are the two acquisitions that are outperforming,” said Raveendran. “At WhiteHat Jr (acquisition), we are underperforming. Though there is a strong market fit there, we have to solve the cost of acquisition there.”