Working to improve edtech returns: Ervin Tu, interim CEO of Byju’s investor Prosus

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Ervin Tu, interim CEO of technology investor Prosus and its South African parent Naspers, said that the firm is working every day to improve returns on its edtech portfolio. He added that investments in companies such as Byju’s and Stack Overflow, which are struggling, have not affected its overall belief in the sector.
Tu was addressing analysts as part of Prosus’s second-quarter earnings call for FY24, from New Delhi.

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The comments come after Tu said on Wednesday that Prosus had marked down the valuation of embattled edtech Byju’s below $3 billion. In March, Prosus had valued Byju’s at about $5.1 billion. The tech investor holds a stake of nearly 10% in the troubled edtech company.

Byju’s last raised capital in 2022, at a flat valuation of $22 billion.
“We have turned our attention significantly to the three problematic assets and businesses in our (edtech) portfolio, That being Stack Overflow, Skillsoft and Byju’s. And we are working every day trying to improve returns there. Those situations, in our judgement, are not emblematic of a change in the overall thesis for edtech,” Tu told analysts.
He added, “Edtech is a very broad sector, including K-12 (kindergarten to grade 12) education, corporate skilling and so on. It's very broad, and the three businesses have not performed as expected. We are working on it and we still have belief in edtech. The priority everyone expects of us is to fix, fix and fix.”
Pace of investments
Speaking on the cash-flow