From Unicorn to Uncertainty: The Unraveling of Byju’s Edtech Empire

✍ By Sarthak Jain | 🌍 India | 📅 Wed Oct 22 2025

From Unicorn to Uncertainty: The Unraveling of Byju’s Edtech Empire

Byju’s, the brand name of the company Think and Learn Pvt ltd, downfall story has left a significant impact on the startup ecosystem. There used to be a time when Byju’s had tapped the online edtech market very efficiently. It had super impressive marketing strategy and had pursued heavy brand endorsements from the start. But disputes began to start from the year 2023 when the tech investor Prosus cut Byju’s valuation by 75%. It’s reasons involved overambitious acquisitions buying companies like WhiteHat Jr. and Great Learning, which led to massive debts. WhiteHat Jr. initially showed promise with its focus on STEM education, particularly coding—a skill in high demand. However, WhiteHat Jr. faced public backlash for allegedly aggressive marketing practices, misleading ads, and high course prices. The acquisition turned into a liability, both financially and reputationally, as it became increasingly hard to maintain customer trust. The acquisition of Aakash Educational Services, a well-established chain of brick-and-mortar coaching centers for test preparation, was one of Byju’s most ambitious moves. This deal was valued at nearly $1 billion. The goal was to leverage Aakash’s strong brand and establish infrastructure for offline coaching while integrating it with Byju’s digital content. However, the cost of this acquisition was significant, and the offline centers required considerable upkeep, adding to Byju’s debt burden. Also Byju’s had overly depended on online market and failed to make offline presence. This came into picture in Post-Pandemic Slowdown when the boom in online learning during the pandemic started to decelerate as students returned to classrooms, impacting Byju's growth. On contrast Unacademy it’s staunch rival had tactfully outrun Byju’s by also expanding offline. And above all, company's debts increased significantly due to expensive marketing campaigns and acquisitions. Even though initial high profile endorsements gave some limelight to the company and helped in attracting a large user base they also led to financial strain and debt accumulation. Some financials are listed below: FY 2020: BYJU'S reported a revenue of ₹ 2,381 crore. FY 2021: The company saw a significant increase in revenue to ₹ 2,428 crore. However, it also reported a comprehensive loss of ₹ 231.69 crore FY 2022: BYJU'S revenue spiked to ₹ 5,015 crore, but it also posted a substantial loss of ₹ 8,245 crore. FY 2023: The company's revenue grew to ₹ 6,500 crore, but specific profit/loss details for FY 2023 haven't been disclosed yet. In year 2022, Deloitte said it was resigning as auditor because Byju's had delayed financial statements for the year ending March 31, 2022. Deloitte stated it did not receive necessary documents even after writing several letters to the board. The company's rapid expansion also led to allegations of a toxic work culture and immense pressure on employees to acquire more customers.