Byju Raveendran broke down in tears as crises engulfed ed-tech startup

livemint.com:

foreign exchange violations in April this year. As per the Bloomberg news agency, Byju Raveendran, the firm’s eponymous founder and chief executive, paced his condo in Dubai, downing cups of black coffee and fielding calls from top investors. Raveendran broke down in tears defending his company, according to people who attended the calls.

Crises have gripped Byju's as once high-flying tutoring startup failed to file its financial accounts on time, skipped an interest payment on its term loan, and triggered a legal fight with creditors. Several US-based investors accused Byju’s of hiding half a billion dollars, prompting lawsuits. Yesterday trouble mounted for Byju's as Prosus NV, an investor in the edtech startup, asserted that the company's reporting and governance structure did not evolve sufficiently for an entity of this scale and it "regularly disregarded advice" by the Dutch-listed firm.

"Despite repeated efforts from our director, executive leadership at Byju's regularly disregarded advice and recommendations relating to strategic, operational, legal, and corporate governance matters," it said. This year, Prosus slashed the valuation of Byju's to $5.1 billion from $22 billion last year. Raveendran’s rise from a private tutor to the leader of a $22 billion company captivated global investors, including Sequoia Capital, Blackstone Inc., and Mark Zuckerberg’s foundation.

The firm ordered a majority of the ed-tech market during the Covid pandemic. But after classrooms reopened, concerns about Byju’s finances pricked at the firm’s reputation. Investors questioned why Raveendran delayed hiring a chief financial officer for years and acquired more than a dozen companies across the world at break-neck speed.