Is Byju’s Actually Profitable?

Byju’s said it reported its first profit in 2018-19 fiscal. That’s surprising because in February, a valuation report filed by the online tutoring services provider suggested profitability was a year away.

The report by Finshore Management Services Ltd.—filed by the company with the Registrar of Companies—expected the unicorn to register its first profit of Rs 331 crore in FY21 on a revenue of Rs 3,986 crore.

The company on Thursday said it tripled its revenue to Rs 1,430 crore for the year ended March 2019, and also crossed Rs 200 crore in monthly revenue. It also claimed to have reported a profit during the period.

But Byju’s didn’t disclose details, or if it had turned profitable operationally or whether it reported a net profit. And the company didn’t respond to BloombergQuint’s queries on profitability.

The eight-year-old startup runs learning apps for school students and test preparation services for competitive exams such as JEE, NEET, IAS, CAT, among others, in English and Hindi. Just last year, it raised more than $400 million in a funding round led by Naspers Ventures with the participation of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, valuing the company at about $3.8 billion. Earlier this year, the firm raised $31.3 million from existing investor General Atlantic.

The company said it has about 35 million registered users and 2.4 million paid subscribers, and targets Rs 3,000-crore revenue in the ongoing financial year.

The valuation report of February, however, estimated that it will have a turnover of Rs 2,328 crore in 2019-20, with a loss of Rs 131.50 crore.

To be sure, Byju’s cut its losses by half in the year ended March 2018 to Rs 37.15 crore. But the report forecast the losses to rise to Rs 61 crore in the three months through March 2019 because of aggressive overseas expansion, especially in the U.S. In January, Byju’s acquired Palo Alto, California-based Osmo, a developer of learning games, for about $120 million.