Bengaluru, NFAPost: Putting a brave front amid doomsday predictions, BYJU’S Cofounder Divya Gokulnath lashed out at media reports which came up with arguments on the abysmal performance of India’s largest edutech company.
Breaking her silence, Divya Gokulnath on Tuesday in a LinkedIn post said that the second blockbuster release of this year, after the movie “Brahmastra”, was the financial results of the $22-billion edtech major.
“The second blockbuster release of this year, after Brahmastra, was BYJU’S financial results. I have not seen Brahmastra yet, but I do happen to know BYJU’S results. Because, as its Director, I was involved in its making. Whether or not you have seen the Bollywood blockbuster, I am sure you would have ‘seen’ our results. But have you seen the complete picture? Because just like for movie reviews, sensationalism results in more clicks than truth in this age of 280-character reading attention spans,” said BYJU’S Cofounder Divya Gokulnath.
She mentioned that while BYJU’s reported Rs 4,500 crore loss in FY21 due to accounting change, (or Rs 12.5 crore loss daily), “we made Rs 27 crore in revenue per day in FY22”.
Divya Gokulnath also made it very clear that she never had any problems with the stories written about the company. “In fact, the content of most of the report on our results is positive. But some of the headlines are another matter. It’s easy for forget that we are 18 months post FY21, and that BYJU’S has grown more than 4 times in this span. Or that our ‘widening losses’ in FY21 have been cut to half in FY22,” said Divya Gokulnath.
She highlighted five headlines and came up with her own argument to prove it.
Article 1
Headline: ‘Byju’s reports widening losses after prolonged audit delay’
What it should have been: ‘Byju’s reports heavy losses for FY21 due to accounting change’
Why: Well, the summary of this article itself says ‘accounting change moved revenue to subsequent years’!
Article 2
Headline: ‘Byju’s FY21 losses surge 20 times….’
What it should have been: ‘‘Byju’s FY21 losses surge; clocks 10,000 cr FY22 revenue’
Why: The summary itself says BYJU’S has reported “nearly Rs 10,000 crore in gross revenues for the following year.”
Article 3
Headline: ‘India’s startup valuation race…’
What it should have been: ‘In our subjective opinion, BYJU’S is over-valued’
Why: Though the headline says ‘India’s startup valuation race’, the article singles out BYJU’S. The entire content reads like The Communist Manifesto. “This newspaper is not against companies earning profits on crucial services…”, they add this disclaimer in a Freudian slip. By the way, valuation is a function of future cash flows. We have clocked ₹1,000 cr+ in revenue every month this year.
Article 4
Headline: ‘Byju’s lost Rs 12.5 cr every day….’
What it should have been: ‘BYJU’S reported Rs 4,500 cr loss in FY21 due to accounting change’
Why: The content explains the reasons why our losses were high in FY21. But to attract your attention, it had to be Rs 12.5 cr loss every day (with a !). By the way, we made Rs 27 cr in revenue per day in FY22!!!
Article 5
Headline: ‘Five red flags from BYJU’S auditor’s notes’
What it should have been: ‘BYJU’S receives clean and unqualified auditor’s report’
Why: Because that is the absolute truth. The number of red flags is zero. And that is also the marks I would give to this publication for their headlines.
She concludes her arguments asking why she is bothered about such headlines in this annus horribilis of startups? “Because I owe it to our 50,000 family members and 150 million plus students. Let’s judge Brahmastra and BYJU’S after seeing the entire pictur,” said BYJU’S Cofounder Divya Gokulnath.
In 2007, Byju Raveendran founded the test preparation business Byju’s Classes, and in 2011 he founded BYJU’s with his wife Divya Gokulnath. Last year, the company went through acquisition spree as the edtech unicorn made at least 10 acquisitions for a cumulative transaction value of about $2.5 billion, including Delhi-based offline test preparatory services provider Aakash for $950 million.
