BYJU’s vacates all offices barring Bengaluru headquarters, employees to WFH

WFH for BYJU's: Embattled edtech BYJU’s has let go of almost all of its corporate working spaces, with its Bengaluru headquarters in exception as a means to cut costs amid piling financial worries.

BYJU’s is headquartered at the IBC Knowledge Park in Bengaluru, where about 1,000 of its employees report, as per reports.

The company recently was in news for delaying employee salaries, alleging that the investors caused its liquid capital to be locked in an escrow account till an NCLT hearing concludes.

BYJU’s raised $200 million in February as part of a rights issue, but select investors including Prosus, General Atlantic, Sofina and PeakXV approached the Bengaluru bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) against the founder and company board.

BYJU’s owns a disputed sum of $533 million parked in an American private investment firm, amid a US court hearing amid concerns of not having enough capital to pay employee salaries.

The company did not specify when employees can return to working in office. Employes working around 300 of BYJU’s tuition centres are not likely to be impacted.

A source close to the company said this was not a new development. 

The company has been shutting its branches in different locations since the past few months, as per the reports.

Last year, BYJU’s Gurugram employees were asked to move to an office space in Noida, according to a former employee, after reports of landlords forcefully evicting the property. 

The company in 2022 took a Term Loan B (TLB) worth $1.2 billion, for expanding its operations but a post-pandemic opening up of schools caused the company to land in a debt-trap. WhiteHat Jr. and OSMO (Tangible Play) were highlighted as top performance draggers for the company.

The company, once valued at $22 billion, recently raised the $200 million at a 99 per cent valuation cut.