The ed-tech platform Unacademy’s advertising promotional expense has surged by 32% to Rs 519.64 crore in FY22 as compared to Rs 393.39 crore in FY21, as per the financial data shared by Tofler.

The company’s standalone net loss widened by 82.76% to Rs 2693.06 crore as compared to Rs 1473.59 crore in FY21, though the company’s revenue from operations increased by 77.59% to Rs 596.7 crore in FY22 against Rs 336.8 crore in FY21. 

Meanwhile, the company’s total employee benefits expense surged by 146% to Rs 1618.9 crore against Rs 658.1 crore in FY21. 

In May this year, the ed-tech platform chose to slash its brand marketing budget as part of a cost-cutting exercise to conserve cash in the aftermath of private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) firms' investment rollbacks.

As earlier reported by exchange4media, in an internal letter to employees, Unacademy Co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal said that they must learn to work under constraints and focus on achieving profitability. He also suggested that the funding winter is here and fresh funding will be hard to come by for at least 12-18 months.

"Tech stocks globally are crashing and burning due to tighter monetary policies and rising interest rates. We are looking at a time when funding will dry up for at least 12-18 months. Some people are predicting that this might last 24 months," he stated in the communication.

Munjal has listed down key steps being taken by the company to achieve profitability. Apart from a reduction in brand marketing spends, Unacademy will focus on organic growth channels.

He also stated that every test-prep category that Unacademy runs must become profitable in the next three months. Unacademy Centres, he added, should be profitable in FY'23 with businesses like Relevel and Graphy, which are in the blitz-scaling mode, must become extremely mindful of Burn and reduce it significantly.

According to media reports, the company had laid off around 1,000 employees, including on-roll and contractual staff.