Focus on cutting losses, bringing in efficiency

Edtech company Byju's, whose losses widened to ₹8,245.2 crore in 2021-22 (FY22) from ₹4,564.38 crore in 2020-21 as subsidiaries White Hat Jr and Osmo underperformed, is expected to see consistent improvement and the losses considerably shrinking in 2022–23 (FY23) and 2023-24 (FY24), says NITIN GOLANI, India chief financial officer (CFO), Byju's.

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In a video interview with Peerzada Abrar, Golani says that the company has taken several measures to improve the company's operating financial conditions, including scaling down the underperforming businesses significantly. Edited excerpts: FY23 audit to a close.

Why was there such a long delay in filing the financials, and what are the challenges? Earlier, we had Deloitte Haskins & Sells as the statutory auditors for Think & Learn (Byju's parent). The audit came out after a significant delay. In July-August 2023, we appointed MSKA & Associates, the audit arm of accounting major BDO Global, as our auditor.

This was a first-year audit for them. In that period, we did our final board meeting and closed on the audit. When the audit started, it was completed on time in about three and a half months. We have already filed the FY22 financials with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Now my priority is to get the Despite revenue jumping to 5,014.60 crore in FY22, the losses almost doubled to ₹8,245.2 crore.

How do you see these numbers? There was 2.2x growth in overall total income in FY22 (₹5,298.43 crore) versus 2020-21, or FY21 (₹2,428.39 crore).

Yes, there have been losses, but I would like to draw your attention to the earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) of the company, which was (minus) ₹4,142.97 crore in FY21 and (minus) ₹6,679.11 crore in FY22. However, our Ebitda percentage improved from 171 per cent to 126 per cent.

Byju's made several acquisitions, including White Hat Jr and Osmo. What kind of impact did they have on the company?