The edtech giant is the largest start-up employer in the country, according to BYJU S boss Byju Raveendran. In the India Today Conclave 2023, Raveendran said that everybody talks about the 2,500 people we had to layoff in those three months October, November and December, but nobody talks about the 25,000 people we hired in the last 12 months. In February 2023, BYJU S hired about 2,000 people, Raveendran claimed. He said that we are the largest start-up employer in the country, with over 55,000 people working with us.
He said that he was not justified in justifying the layoffs but there were a lot of redundancies when we acquired companies. We had to do this at a time when the world was looking at efficient growth. The edtech giant's 2022 was a difficult year. The most valued start-up in India is in the middle of a number of controversies this year due to delays, widening losses and the recent allegations by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
Raveendran also addressed the Lionel Messi controversy, saying that the deal was in process for several months and that the announcement coincided with the layoffs. BYJU S welcomed the football legend as a brand ambassador for its education-for-all program.
Raveendran revealed how he met his wife Divya Gokulnath, who later became his co-founder. Byju revealed that she was one of my students who would ask the maximum number of questions.
The duo also spoke about the scope of the edtech sector in the Indian market. The Indian edtech market is growing at 40 per cent annually whereas the global market is only 16.4 per cent, according to Gokulnath.
She said when they started out, it was like painting on an empty campus. Now that they have built a global champion from India, they can say that when their presence is spread across 120 countries and territories. Divya Gokulnath said that wars will not last forever, interest rates will not rise forever, but India's growth story is here to stay.