Byju Raveendran, founder of edtech company Byju's, which is facing financial crisis, said that during difficult times, his colleagues left him, due to which the situation of the company had worsened. Raveendran said this in the virtual media briefing. During this, he talked about many issues including the worst phase of his company, net worth being zero as well as dispute with BCCI, raising funds, reasons for leaving India and staying in Dubai.
If I was not a fraud, I would have withdrawn all my money.
Raveendran said that his company is not fraudulent. He said that we have not committed any mistake intentionally. No fraud has been committed. If there was fraud, the founders would have withdrawn the money. I don't invest all my money in the company. He said, 'I don't want to give a deadline, but I will return'.
Key parts of Raveendran's media interactions…
- In May 2023, three big investors of the company – Prosus, Peak XV Partners and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative simultaneously resigned from the board. This decision was the biggest blow to the company.
- The company had predicted rapid growth in the next two-three years and under pressure from investors, the company adopted the path of aggressive growth, which proved to be a big mistake. Due to this, today the net worth has become zero.
- Ravindran said that we started investing in many markets simultaneously. All of our acquisition and growth decisions were approved by a 6-0 vote of the Board members.
- Many investors of the company made a lot of money. Peak XV earned almost eight times its investment of $50 million in a very short period of time. We returned more than $2 billion to investors. No one talks about returns.
- If we had investors who have invested in big companies, it would have been very helpful for us. It would have been better if we had people like Mohandas Pai earlier, because he has seen scaling in India too.
- Byju said- In good times, investors wanted to increase the business to 100 billion dollars. Financial returns seemed more important to them. He did not care about the students at all. I got the most support for WhiteHat Jr. But resistance was met for Akash.
- He told that he has more than 26% stake in Byju's parent company Think and Learn. He said that after the infusion of funds it has also increased. However, he said that I do not want to reveal the data.
- Raveendran said that whatever order comes from NCLAT, I will find a way. There is no such problem in the world which cannot be solved. I don't want to give a deadline, but I will be back.
- I'm not running anywhere. If we had to run, we would have done so long ago. It is sad that people think that I have fled India. I came to Dubai four years ago due to my father's health reasons.
Ravindran has Started career as a mathematics teacher
Byju Raveendran started his career as a mathematics teacher. In 2011, when he founded Byju's, it became the fastest growing startup. The company had said its valuation in 2022 to be $22 billion, approximately Rs 1.84 lakh crore. BYJU'S provides coaching to students from primary level to MBA.
Read these news also…
1. In April, Byju Raveendran's net worth became zero, when Forbes even excluded him from the list of billionaires.
On April 4 this year, the net worth of Byju Raveendran, founder of edtech company Byju's, which was facing financial crisis, had become zero. A year ago, i.e. on April 4, 2023, his net worth was $ 2.1 billion (about ₹ 17,545 crore then). This information was revealed in Forbes' Billionaire Index 2024. Read the full news…
2. Bankruptcy action will not be taken against Byju's: NCLAT accepted the agreement with BCCI, control of the company again with Byju's.
3. Byju's will be closed if the bankruptcy proceedings go ahead: CEO Byju Raveendran said this in the court filing, said – business will come to a complete standstill.
4. Byju's challenged the bankruptcy proceedings: The company is also trying to settle with BCCI, ₹158 crore of sponsorship is outstanding.
Graphics Source: VaskarAssets
