Byju’s has laid off thousands of employees this year, and the ones who’re still with the ed-tech giant aren’t having the best time either.
Byju’s employees were evicted from an office space in Gurugram over non-payment of rent, Financial Express reports. The employees were working out of the Incuspaze co-working space which housed mainly Byju’s technology teams. These employees were asked to vacate the premises over non-payment of rent.
A Byju’s spokesperson, however, denied the report and said all rental payments had been made on time. They said that the company was instead reconsidering whether it would continue using the office premises in the months ahead. The spokesperson added that the company is in the process of negotiating a notice period, or an early exit charge, which has been a cause of dispute between the two parties.
Byju’s has shuttered several offices over the last few months as it has lurched from one crisis after another. In July, Byju’s had vacated its largest office space at Kalyani Tech Park in Bengaluru, which was spread over 5.58 lakh square feet. It had also given up a portion of another office space in Prestige Tech Park in the same city. In July this year, Byju’s had also shut down an office in Sector 44 in Gurugram and laid off most of the people working there, and also shut down its office in Noida in Sector 125.
But it appears that the employees at Byju’s Incuspaze office space in Gurugram were proactively forced to move out because Byju’s failed to pay its dues. This will be another blow for Byju’s, which has had crisis-laden year so far. Byju’s had delayed filing its FY21 financial results for so long that even the Indian government commented on the issue. The results hadn’t made for pretty reading — Byju’s had lost Rs. 4,588 crore in FY 21 — and Byju’s had then proceeded to lay off thousands of employees. Around this time, questions had been raised in Indian parliament about Byjus’ alleged mis-selling of courses to economically vulnerable parents, and even the country’s child rights body had summoned CEO Byju Raveendran for questioning.
But things kept getting worse — not long after, the Enforcement Directorate had raided CEO Byju Raveendran’s home, and seized incriminating documents over violation of foreign exchange laws. Since then, Byju’s has seen its valuation marked down by as much as half by several investors, and the company had tried to restructure its loan obligations. Byju’s had then been sued by its lenders, but it had gone on to sue them back and refused to pay back its loans amounting to $1.2 billion. Not long after, 3 of Byju’s board members had resigned in unison over concerns over its corporate governance , and a day later, its auditor, Deloitte, had also resigned. Just last week, the ED had said Byju’s had contravened the FEMA act to the tune of Rs. 9,000 crore. And with its employees being shunted out of its offices, it appears that the company is truly staring at the bottom on the barrel.