'Foolish for people to think...': Byju Raveendran addresses Messi row after layoffs

Byju Raveendran, Byju’s founder and CEO.

Byju’s, the world’s most valued edtech firm, has faced sharp criticism after it fired 2,500 employees and then announced that the company has signed star footballer Lionel Messi as its global brand ambassador. Now, in an interview with YourStory, founders Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath have clarified on the move and even discussed what lies ahead for the company.

In a message to employees, Raveendran announced the firing of about 5% of its workforce had been necessitated to avoid role duplication and reduce redundancies as the company focuses on profitability.

Addressing the layoffs, the Divya Gokulnath said: “Sometimes what Byju and Divya want is not what BYJU’s as a company wants.”

On signing Messi, Raveendran said the deal was to make social impact.

“The deal with Messi is not a typical sponsorship deal. It is a partnership to create social impact. It was something that we signed 6 months back. It is foolish for people to think that we will pay money for Messi after letting people go,” he said.

Adding that the company has grown 70 per cent the last year, Raveendran said: “We grew by almost 70% in the year, this is not visible in the financials for a few reasons. We just finished our best six months, with 3x growth in revenue in 2023.”

Gokunath even called the company “pioneers” in edtech and said they take criticism as “critique”.

Raveendran also apologized and said mistakes have been made and added that complacency at this stage was “criminal”.

“There's no scope for short-term optics. Just like anyone else when you grow this fast, we've made our fair share of mistakes and we're sorry about it. When you're privileged enough to make such a big impact, it's criminal to be complacent,” he said.

He also said that in two decades, the number of students learning for free will be much more than paid.

“Give us 20 more years, and I can give it in writing, there will be more students who will be learning free from us compared to paid,” Raveendran added and said that he will be doing this for 30 more years. “I'm the largest investor in the company not just shareholder,” he said.