The country’s most valued ed-tech start-up Byju’s on Wednesday announced revenues of Rs 2,428 crore in the financial year 2020-21.

However, the company is still in the red reportedly earning a loss of Rs 4,588 crore.

The company had posted a revenue of Rs 2,511 crore and a loss of Rs 231 crore in 2019- 20. The 2020-21 results of the Bangalore-based startup were under scrutiny on account of a delay in reporting the financial numbers.

Subsequently, it received an unqualified report for 2020-21 from its auditor Deloitte Haskins and Sells. While blaming the delay on revenue recognition, Byju’s said it expected revenues to jump manifold to Rs 10,000 crore in 2021-22.

It also stated that between April and July, it earned Rs 4,530 crore, higher than the full-year revenue in FY21.

“The revenue for FY21 of the Byju’s group is Rs 2,428 crore. There was significant business growth in FY21 over FY20, but since this is the first year where new revenue recognition started because of a Covid-related business model change, almost 40 per cent of the revenue was deferred to subsequent years,” the company said in a statement.

Co-founder and CEO Byju Raveendran told PTI that there was an impact of recognising streaming revenues over the period of consumption.

Credit sales and EMI sales were also recognised after the complete collection.

While revenue was deferred, costs were recognised and this led to an increase in losses.

“There have been acquisitions that have been fast growing but loss making — like White Hat Jr. As a result, losses have shot up from almost break-even to over Rs 4,500 crore in FY21,” the CEO said.

Byju’s has been on an acquisition spree in India and globally with the Covid pandemic accelerating the adoption of online education.

Some of these deals include the $1-billion buy of Aakash Educational Services and the $600-million acquisition of Singapore-based Great Learning last year.

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

“Byju’s 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.,” the company said.

Raveendran said the change in the macroeconomic situation has forced Byju’s to put a pause on new deals as it focuses on integrating its previous acquisitions.

The company is also in the advanced stages of discussion to raise around $500 million. Raveendran said the company is looking to defer its initial public offering because of an uncertain economic environment.

“Right now, no one is launching an IPO. We will also defer our plans by 9-12 months from now. We will look at it towards the end of the calendar year 2023,” he said.

Bids for IDBI selloff soon

DIPAM secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey on Wednesday said the department is working on the expression of interest (EoI) and would soon invite preliminary bids from investors for the privatisation of IDBI Bank.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave an in-principle approval for strategic disinvestment and transfer of management control in IDBI Bank in May 2021.

At present, the government holds 45.48 per cent in the bank, and Life Insurance Corporation, which is currently the promoter of the bank, owns a 49.24 per cent stake. “We have been at it for quite some time.

It is also a first-of-its-kind transaction where through a bidding route we will be privatising a bank.

Both the government and the LIC put together hold 94 per cent in IDBI Bank,” he said while addressing ‘Ficci CAPAM 2022 — 19th Annual Capital Markets Conference.