Edtech soonicorn BrightCHAMPS reported a 22.7% decline in its standalone operating revenue to INR 17.4 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23) from INR 22.5 Cr in the previous fiscal year.
Founded in July 2020 by Ravi Bhushan, BrightCHAMPS offers certificate courses for coding, creative thinking, financial literacy, among others, to kids in the 6-16 years age group. It earns a majority of its revenue from the sale of services.
Total revenue, including interest income, declined to INR 20.6 Cr from INR 22.5 Cr in FY22.
Hurt by the decline in revenue and rise in expenses, the startup’s net loss widened to INR 159.5 Cr in FY23 from INR 98.6 Cr in the previous year.
It must be noted that after Inc42 reported the company’s FY22 results earlier this year, BrightCHAMPS issued a statement saying given the global nature of its business, the revenue of its international entities exceeded the revenue of the India entity by more than 100%.
However, the contribution of the revenue from India to the startup’s overall global revenue is not clear.
Expenses Rise Despite Decline In Revenue
Despite the fall in top line, BrightCHAMPS failed to control its expenses during FY23. The startup’s total expenses jumped 1.5X to INR 180.1 Cr from INR 121.1 Cr in FY22.
Employee benefit expense was the single biggest contributor to total expenses, growing 1.3X to INR 73.1 Cr from INR 54.8 Cr in the prior fiscal.
In fact, despite the Indian startup ecosystem being hit by layoffs and restructuring exercises amid the ongoing funding winter, which has hurt the edtech sector the worst, BrightCHAMPS was in the headlines as it continued to hire and give increments to employees.
While the startup spent INR 45.2 Cr on salaries and wages in FY23, it spent INR 25 Cr on ESOPs.
In January this year, it announced stock options worth $1 Mn for 400 of its teachers.
Meanwhile, BrightCHAMPS’ advertising and marketing expenses also jumped 1.3X to INR 58.2 Cr in FY23 from INR 42.4 Cr in the prior year.
On a unit economics level, the startup spent INR 10.35 to earn every INR 1 from operations.
Earlier this year, BrightCHAMPS made its third acquisition in the form of Hyderabad-based edtech startup Metamorphosis Edu.
BrightCHAMPS last raised $63 Mn in 2021 in a round led by Premji Invest, GSV Ventures, 021 Capital, Beenext, and Binny Bansal for further global expansion.
The startup competes with the likes of BYJU’S-owned WhiteHat Jr and PlanetSpark.
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