Edtech unicorn Vedantu posted a loss of Rs 696 crore in FY22 against losses of Rs 616 crore in the financial year 2020-21.

This comes on the back of the Bengaluru-based company spending Rs 489 crore on employee benefits—its largest expense—according to the company’s annual financial statements with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

The Tiger Global-backed firm’s overall expenditure went up 19% to Rs 891 crore in FY22 from Rs 748 crore in FY21. Its advertising and promotion expenses grew marginally to Rs 183 crore.

The startup reported consolidated revenue of Rs 194.3 crore in FY22—a 43% increase compared to the previous fiscal. Its revenue from operations increased by 80% to Rs 169 crore in FY22 from Rs 94 crore in FY21.

Vedantu, founded by Vamsi Krishna, Anand Prakash, and Pulkit Jain in 2011, became a unicorn in 2021 after raising $100 million in its Series E round led by Singapore-based ABC World Asia. The edtech unicorn has raised a total of $328 million in over 20 rounds, according to Tracxn.

However, just like its peers in the edtech sector, Vedantu has been going through a challenging time. The edtech firm laid off over 1,000 employees last year. 

While the Vamsi Krishna-led firm downsized its workforce in 2022, it acquired a majority stake in Deeksha (Ace Creative Learning) at a deal size of $40 million to strengthen its offline presence.

Other edtech unicorns such as Tiger Global-backed Unacademy reported a loss of Rs 2,848 crore in FY22. BYJU’S, which is yet to file its FY22 number, reported Rs 4,588 crore loss in FY21, while upGrad witnessed a loss of Rs 627 crore in the last fiscal year. 

Physics Wallah was the only profitable firm among edtech unicorns. Its net profit for the financial year 2021-22 was Rs 97.8 crore—up 14-fold from Rs 6.93 crore in the year-ago period.