At Byju’s townhall, key questions from employees remain unanswered

As the crisis at ed-tech giant Byju’s deepens, the leadership conducted a town hall meeting with the staff on Thursday to provide clarity on recent developments. While co-founder Byju Raveendran seemed optimistic about the unicorn startup’s future prospects, key questions from the employees, including on layoffs, went unanswered, sources close to the matter told DH.

“No new information was provided apart from what is already out there in the media. The town hall was not interactive, we were not allowed to ask questions during the meeting and no response was provided to e-mailed questions sent later,” the source aware of the developments in the townhall meeting said. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity and said that some concerns were still not addressed, something which was confirmed by another source.

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As an example, two days back, a team involved in Byju's early learning offering, was downsized. Now, another different team is expected to be dissolved, and some employees will be shifted to other teams while the rest are expected to be laid-off, the second source said. However, there is still no clarity on how many will be let go and how many will be retained, the second person said.

“Resignation papers are already ready; they just ask people to come and sign and leave the company,” the second person said.

However, none of these issues were touched upon during the townhall meeting, where Raveendran instead highlighted that while the company is going through a tough phase, things are expected to get better in the coming months. “Last 12 months we have been struggling. But edtech will stay forever, and we are the pioneers. We are in the correct space,” he is believed to have said.

A source close to the company management said the employees' queries will be addressed in due time. However, they declined to comment on their concerns about layoffs and pause in pay hikes.

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The co-founder also mentioned that Deloitte’s recent exit as the company’s auditor was a mutual decision as both parties had been facing issues since the beginning. The firm believes it is at a growth stage where it requires a hands-on auditor which is more dedicated towards the company, sources quoted him as saying in the town hall. Byju’s has since onboarded BDO as its statutory auditor to ensure timely audits going forward.

Representatives of three of its global investors stepping down from Byju’s board earlier this month was also painted as an amicable development not related to Deloitte’s exit, but no further clarity on restructuring was provided to the employees. He did mention that the company is “actively expanding and diversifying its board to reflect the scale, scope, and reach of operations, which is a routine practice for large companies.”

Raveendran highlighted that the focus is on turning the business sustainable and profitable, and some profit generation is coming through a few products currently. However, the startup has had to undertake cost cutting and optimization due to various ongoing concerns, he said. These have included not just layoffs, but also a pause on hikes, provident fund payments, incentives and appraisals, which haven't taken place this year, employees said.