Highly-valued Indian edtech major Byju’s is set to fire a big chunk of its employees in another round of layoffs. As per media reports, the start-up will lay off its staff from the sales and marketing team. 

Last year, the company announced a possible five per cent rationalisation of its 50,000-strong global employee bandwidth in an attempt to reduce its cost. The announcement led to the termination of 5,000 staff across verticals. 

Byju’s was valued at $22 billion in its last funding round. However, it recently witnessed a valuation slash from the US-based investment firm Blackrock. The firm downsized its valuation to $8.2 billion from $22 billion. 

The latest move came after lenders scrapped their loan restructuring talks with the edtech firm. The company had been in talks with the investors to restructure its $1.2 billion loan. Lenders asked the company to pay $40 million of the entire $1.2 billion Term Loan B (TLB). 

However, the company filed suit against the investment management firm Redwood in the Supreme Court of New York to challenge the acceleration of the loan. It accused the firm of purchasing a significant portion of the loan while primarily trading in distressed debt, which according to Byju’s was contrary to the condition of the term loan facility. It also accused the firm of leading other investors to play predatory tactics. 

“On 3 March 2023, the TLB lenders unlawfully accelerated the TLB on account of certain alleged non-monetary and technical defaults. On the back of this unconscionable acceleration of the TLB, the TLB lenders undertook unwarranted enforcement measures, including seizing control of BYJU’S Alpha and appointing its own management. Not resting content with this, the TLB lenders (acting through their agent, GLAS Trust Company) commenced litigation in Delaware in an attempt to lend credence to these actions,” it added in the statement.