BlackRock slashes Byju’s valuation to $1 billion, down 95% from $22 billion, says report
BlackRock has once again reduced its valuation of Indian ed-tech unicorn Byju’s, this time by around 95 percent from $22 billion to $1 billion, as per a Tech Crunch report citing company disclosures. At $22 billion, Byju's was India's most valuable start-up. The downgrade is not too surprising.
In October 2023, the mutual funds investor valued Byju’s shares at around $209.6 each, a significant drop from the peak of $4,660 in 2022. The company holds less than 1 percent of Byju's. It provides multiple disclosures throughout the year, without explanation for its choices, the report said.
Blackrock and Byju's did not respond to queries. Also Read | Airbus beats Boeing with record jet orders for the fifth year While not the first, it is the most drastic adjustment in valuation that the troubled ed-tech start-up has faced. In 2023, Prosus, which holds 9 percent of the company, valued the unicorn at 'sub $3 billion'.
This valuation markdown represents a significant reversal of fortune for Byju’s, once considered the poster child of the Indian start-up ecosystem. Despite acquiring over half a dozen firms globally with an expenditure exceeding $2.5 billion in 2021 and 2022, Byju’s, which was once valued as high as $50 billion, is now facing financial challenges. The company, which was preparing to go public in early 2022 through a SPAC deal with a potential valuation of up to $40 billion, had to put its IPO plans on hold due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February that year.
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