MUMBAI: India’s most valuable startup BYJU’S, which has just extended its Team India shirt sponsor deal with the BCCI for another 18 months (until the end of 2023), is on a major cost-cutting exercise.
While the $22 billion edtech major’s shirt sponsor deal extension is valued at around $55 million in toto, or roughly $1m per game that Team India will play over the next 18 months, it is now more in the news for eliminating as many as 2,500 jobs across its group companies in recent days and pushing back on payments for a $1 billion acquisition it announced last year.
TechCrunch reports that the Bengaluru-headquartered startup has cut jobs at Toppr, an online learning startup it acquired last year for $150 million, and at WhiteHat Jr, a kids-focused coding platform it acquired two years ago for $300 million.
The developments follow BYJU’S extending the deadline for making parts of the payments for its $1 billion acquisition of Aakash, a chain of physical coaching centres, it announced over a year ago. The Morning Context first reported about the payment delay.
In a statement to TechCrunch, a BYJU’S spokesperson asserted the startup was on track to make the payments by the “agreed upon” date in August.
“Along with all our group companies, we continue to be perfectly poised to provide access to quality education in all learning segments from early learning to exam prep and career success,” the spokesperson added.
For the layoff at Toppr, the edtech giant confirmed the development, adding it had “completed the integration of Toppr and has absorbed almost 80% of its talented workforce into the Byju’s ecosystem.”
“As the next step, we are optimizing teams to recalibrate business priorities and accelerate our long-term growth,” the spokesperson added.
Coming back to BYJU’S shirt sponsor deal extension with the BCCI, its original term expired in March just before the start of IPL 2022.
BYJU’S had replaced OPPO in a pathbreaking deal in 2019 when the Chinese smartphone brand wanted to hand over the remainder of its term after being a Team India sponsor for two-and-a-half years.
The recently concluded South Africa tour of India, for a five-match T20I series, marked the beginning of the new term.
Nikhil Vyas, co-founder and CEO, of ITW Mworx, who led the partnership discussions, terms it “India’s most valuable and prestigious sports sponsorship”.
ITW Universe earlier stitched together the global partnership between BYJU’S and the International Cricket Council (ICC), which will run till the end of 2023
