Edtech giant Byju’s is in talks with bankers to publicly list its offline coaching unit Aakash Educational Service according to the media reports. The listing might take place at the beginning of 2023. Aakash is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Byjus and is profitable as well.

The media reports mentioned that it is looking to raise $800 million to $1 billion in the initial public offering (IPO) of Aakash at a valuation of over $3.5 billion. It is Currently, valued at $22 billion and has delayed its own IPO planned earlier this year through the SPAC route at a valuation worth $40 billion, due to uncertain macroeconomic conditions. 

Few days back Byju’s founder and CEO Raveendran wrote an internal letter to the employees. Where he explained the strategic move of layoff promises a smooth transition by helping them and giving facilities like the medical cover. However, The edtech giant also went back on its decision to shut down its office in Technopark in Trivandrum and hire back the employees who were laid off.

Recently Think and Learn parent company of Byju’s borrowed Rs 300 crore from its wholly-owned subsidiary Aakash Education services for running its principal activities. Akash continues to run as a separate entity for Byju’s and does not merge under single umbrella-like others.

Last year, Byju’s had acquired then Blackstone-backed Aakash in a cash-and-stock $1 billion deal. The deal stands as one of the biggest acquisitions by the company so far. Aakash is a chain of physical coaching centres across India. 

Meanwhile, Byju’s is taking several cost-cutting measures including laying off 2500 employees or 5% of its workforce. The layoffs are planned across the sales, content, media, and technology divisions. 

Its losses jumped 20x for the 2020-21 fiscal year to Rs 4,589 crore on a revenue of Rs 2,428 crore.