This Edtech Unicorn Turned Profitable After Tripling Its Revenue in FY19 BYJU's recorded a revenue of INR 1,341 crore for fiscal year 2019

Increased Internet penetration and availability of smartphones has made its way into making the world smaller. Technology is also disrupting the education market where the former is leveraged to make learning more engaging and reach students at places with poor schooling infrastructure. One of the giants in this space, BYJU's turned profitable and recorded a revenue of INR 1,341 crore for the fiscal year which ended on March 31, 2019. This is thrice the amount of INR 490 crore in FY18.

According to the edtech Unicorn, deeper penetration of its services across India and increase in numbers of paid subscribers are the primary drivers of growth.

"We have exceeded our financial goals that we set at the beginning of the year. Expanding our base across smaller towns and cities and introducing new products have been pivotal to our growth. With 60 per cent of our students based outside the metros, the aspiration and need for quality learning has never been higher," said Mrinal Mohit, chief operating officer, BYJU's.

BYJU's Growth In Numbers

According to the company, it recorded a net profit of INR 20 crores in FY 18-19. Its gross revenues also increased to INR 1480 crores from INR 520 crores, last fiscal.

BYJU's claims to have over 40 million registered users and 2.8 million paid subscribers currently. According to the company, the average number of minutes a student spends on the app has increased from 64 minutes to 71 minutes per day over the last 12 months and the annual renewal rates are as high as 85%.

"This year, we also launched our product for young learners (Grades 1-3), which completed our learning offerings from grades 1 - 12. We are also planning to reach out to deeper parts of India by launching programs in vernacular languages. We strongly believe that we have the capability to create a global product that can revolutionize learning for students across the world," Mohit said.

Future Plans

The company is now aimed at doubling its revenue to INR 3,000 crore for the current financial year. Apart from this, Mohit also revealed that the company will also soon launch BYJU's online tutoring which will further accelerate growth and profitability for the current fiscal.

Edtech Market in India

The online education market is expected to grow to $1.96 billion by 2021, a 52 per cent compounded annual growth from 2016, according to a 2017 report published by Google and research firm KPMG.

Online disruption in the education market takes the classroom directly inside the homes of the students thereby getting wider reach. Apart from this, technological development is making education a more interactive experience for children, thereby increasing their engagement rather than one-way classroom lectures. Also, online lectures allow one-on-one attention to students to help them grow at their own pace.

Currently, apart from BYJU's notable players such as Unacademy, Toppr, Safeducate and GradeUp are looking to disrupt the edtech market.