Byju's decides not to shut its Kerala centre after founder meets CM

Byju Raveendran reiterates his commitment to the state, says company spokesperson

Byju’s will continue its Thiruvananthapuram centre, the edtech giant decided after founder Byju Raveendran held discussions with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday.

A total of 140 associates will continue to operate from the centre, as the company valued at $22 billion restructures business as it seeks to be profitable by March next year.

Raveendran, a former teacher and the son of educators from Azhikode village in Kannur district of Kerala, founded Byju’s along with his wife Divya Gokulnath in 2011 in Bengaluru.

“Byju Raveendran, who is from Kerala, reiterates his commitment to the state and the leadership team of Byju’s, under his guidance, will pursue a growth strategy in the state,” said a Byju’s spokesperson.

The Bengaluru-based firm had earlier said that it was discontinuing its Thiruvananthapuram operations for redundancy. It claimed that it was offering relevant relocation opportunities to the affected employees.

A group of Byju’s employees recently met Kerala labour minister V Sivankutty, alleging that the firm was forcing more than 170 staffers to resign, as it looked to discontinue operations and close its Thiruvananthapuram office. TechnoparkToday, a community digital media platform for IT professionals, said that Byju’s planned discontinuing the office.

Prathidhwani, a welfare organisation of techies requested the labour minister to intervene and help employees reach an amicable and dignified settlement with the firm and a revised exit policy with compensatory benefits.

The Kerala government then served a notice on representatives of Think and Learn (P) Ltd, (Byju’s parent company) to appear at the district labour commissioner's office for talks over forcing 170 employees to resign.

However, Byju’s said it has no plans to exit Kerala and is setting up three centres in the state and hiring around 600 people. With this, the total number of Byju’s establishments across the state will be 14 and these are a mix of company offices and tuition centres. The number of employees in the state will increase from 3,000 to 3,600.

According to Byju’s “optimisation plan” the firm is set to lay off nearly 2,500, or 5 per cent, of its 50,000 total employees. Byju’s booked a loss of Rs 4,588 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2021. Under the optimisation plan, the company said it looks to target profitability by March 2023.

Raveendran, who is also chief executive officer of Byju’s, said this week that the firm has to part ways with 2,500 employees to avoid role duplication.

“There is a huge price to pay for walking on this path to profitability,” said Raveendran in an internal company letter addressed to the employees. “I am truly sorry to those who will have to leave Byju’s. You are not just a name to me. You are not a number. You are not just five percent of my company. You are five percent of me.”