EdTech major BYJU's is planning to get rid of coding platform WhiteHat Jr, as part of its restructuring drive. Sources from BYJU's informed that WhiteHat Jr, which had more than 8,000 employees across the country, now has only a few hundred roles left as it never picked up pace and brought revenues for the company.
The coding platform was acquired at a cost of $300 million in July 2020. According to people close to the development team at BYJU's, top-level discussions took place to let go of the WhiteHat Jr brand which has faced severe criticism in the past. However, it is confirmed that there are no plans of shutting it down, as per a report by IANS.
"We are merely optimising it for organic and efficient growth. We remain fully committed to delivering world-class educational experiences and solutions that empower students to achieve their full potential," BYJU's spokesperson said. The company added that it was constantly evaluating and optimising its business operations towards global growth.
"As an ongoing activity, we are actively evaluating all our business units to ensure that they are aligned with our path to profitability," BYJU's stated further. However, according to the IANS sources, the company, which was last valued at $22 billion, will not be able to meet its March 2023 deadline to achieve group-level profitability, as it envisioned.
The EdTech unicorn reported a loss of Rs 4,588 crore for the fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2021. It has sacked thousands of employees till date and has taken deeper cuts, but is still mounting losses.
WhiteHat Jr, on the other hand, reported a massive loss of Rs 1,690 crore in the financial year 2021, while its expenses reached Rs 2,175 crore that year. In 2022, during April-May, over 1,000 of its employees, including teachers who worked on a contractual basis resigned. Later, more employees either moved on their own or were let off.
The platform also shut its schools division that targeted to take its flagship coding curriculum to 10 lakh school students by the next academic year. Its foray into teaching music online, offering guitar and piano playing lessons yielded no fruitful results either, as per IANS.