EdTech Unicorn, Vedantu reports Rs 696 crore net loss in FY22

The post-COVID recovery has not been too kind to the edtech sector and companies like Byju’s, Vedantu, Upgrad and Unacademy have been at the receiving end. The Bengaluru-based Vedantu saw losses widening by 13% yoy to Rs 696 crores in FY22. Top line revenues have concomitantly increased by 80% to Rs169 crores, but the losses wipe out the revenue gains of FY22.

However, Vedantu is not alone. Most educational start-ups, barring PhysicsWallah have been in the red, albeit with higher revenues than Vedantu. The SoftBank-backed Unacademy clocked revenues at Rs719 crore (up 80%) but losses widened by 85% to Rs1,537 crores. Meanwhile, Temasek-funded Upgrad saw revenues double to Rs679 crores, but net loss for FY22 widened 3-fold to Rs627 crore. 

PhysicsWallah is relatively new in the edtech market space, and the company had been bootstrapped till June 2022. However, FY22 saw revenues grow 9.5 times to Rs233 crore. Interestingly, they had also discovered the golden mantra for edtech profits as they reported net profits of Rs98 crore in FY22. They managed their marketing costs and cash burn a lot better. 

According to Vedantu, the largest share of their costs went towards employee benefits at Rs489 crores. Employee costs for Vedantu had grown 20% yoy. Marketing costs remained static at Rs182 crore, but inflation had hit their cost structures. Vedantu is now also investing heavily in offline education to be relevant in the post-COVID era. Vedantu acquired majority stake in South-based educational group, Deeksha, and is currently in the midst of preparing for its forthcoming IPO in FY26.