Byju's eyes profitability, to launch international products by next year

India’s leading edtech startup Byju's will reach profitability in FY18 said the company's CEO Byju Raveendran. Besides, the firm also going to launch its international products by the end of next year. Byju’s will first look to target the US and the UK and few other smaller English-speaking markets.

According to RoC (Registrar of Companies) filing and accessed from research platform Tofler, the total income of Byju’s has more than doubled in FY17 as compared to FY16. In FY 16, the income was Rs 110 crore and it reached Rs 247 crore in FY17.

“From finishing at Rs 250 crore in revenue in March 2017, the company is on target to cross Rs 550 crore in March 2018, also turning profitable at the same time,” said Raveendran.

He further added, “In first six months itself, we have crossed last year’s revenue and loss. As a percentage, it has dropped substantially. We have doubled teams in product development."

As per the report, the net losses have marginally increased from Rs 49. 6 crore to Rs 59.4 crore as compared to the previous financial year, where it went up by 43%. A significant investment has gone into employee costs and advertising. Moreover, total employee benefit expenses have increased from Rs 25.5 crore to Rs 62.5 crore.

Backed by Tencent, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sequoia, Byju's was founded in 2011. The edtech firm, which already has a footprint in the Middle East, revealed its expansion plan to the US, the UK, South Africa and other African and Commonwealth markets during last funding by Tencent.

With the acquisition global education company Pearson Plc’s TutorVista and Edurite in July, the edtech major had cleared its view to go international.

Byju’s has over 8 million users and 700K annual paid subscribers. Through its flagship product-Byju’s-The learning app, it offers learning programmes for class K-12 & test preparation for JEE, AIPMT, CAT, IAS, GRE & GMAT.

Besides the aforementioned investors, Sofina, Lightspeed Ventures, Verlinvest, Aarin Capital and Times Internet also invested in the startup, which has so far raised $245 million in funding.