BYJU’S Relinquishes Most Office Spaces, Adopts Work-from-Home Policy

Amid the ongoing financial crisis, embattled edtech startup BYJU’S has reportedly given up all its office spaces in India, except its headquarter in Bengaluru, to cut costs.

The startup has reduced its office spaces from three to one in the last 10 months in Bengaluru, downsizing its IBC Knowledge Park premises from five floors to three, The CapTable reported. 

It hasn’t renewed leases since last September and has significantly cut its headcount from a peak of around 60,000 employees. 

Reportedly, the decision to shut the offices in the country is a part of BYJU’S India CEO Arjun Mohan’s restructuring plan.

The development comes at a time when BYJU’S and its management are at war with investors and are engaged in a legal battle over the $200 Mn raised recently via a rights issue.

As per the report, all BYJU’S employees outside its headquarter and 300 BYJU’S Tuition Centres will now be working from home for an indefinite period or can work from the nearest Tuition Centre.

As of mid-2023, BYJU’S had 100 offices across the country, with multiple spaces in major regions like Delhi NCR and Bengaluru. The company reported having over 3 Mn square feet of rented space as of July last year, including its largest office, a 5.58 lakh square feet facility in Bengaluru’s Kalyani Tech Park, which was vacated.

A mail sent to BYJU’S on the latest development didn’t elicit any response till the time of publishing this story.

It is pertinent to note that the edtech startup, after delaying salaries for its employees for the month of February, last week reportedly said that it processed the salaries of some of the employees in part and in full for some others.

The company said that the processed salaries would reflect in the bank accounts of the employees on Monday (March 11) and the remaining salaries would be cleared once the rights issue funds are available, as per reports.

Earlier this month, BYJU’S CEO and founder Byju Raveendran said there would be delay in processing salaries of the employees for the month of February as the capital raised by it via the rights issue was locked in a separate account because of some of its investors.

Last month, the Bengaluru bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), while hearing a petition filed by BYJU’S investors, asked the edtech startup to keep the proceeds from its rights issue in a separate escrow account.

The edtech giant is facing challenges on various fronts and has recently been in the headlines for its clashes with investors and lenders, a potential debt crisis, several legal cases, delay in filing financial statements, significant layoffs, and increased scrutiny from regulatory authorities.

Its investors recently passed multiple resolutions, including those calling for ouster of Raveendran as CEO and the removal of his family members Divya Gokulnath and Riju Raveendran from their respective management roles, at an extraordinary general meeting of the startup.