Meet man who once owned Rs 182600 crore company, it’s worth is now Zero, his business is…

Three key investors have left the company, making fundraising difficult.

New Delhi: One of India’s leading edtech startups BYJU’S made headlines since it was founded in 2011 by Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath. BYJU’S was once India’s biggest startup at a $22 billion valuation in 2022 and in April 2023, the company claimed it had over 150 million registered students.

Three key investors, Prosus, Peak XV Partners, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative have left the company, making fundraising difficult.

Now, the highly celebrated startup is zero. This was announced by BYJU’s Founder and CEO Byju Raveendran who has said that “the edtech startup, which was once India’s biggest startup at $22 billion valuation, is now worth zero”.

“We overestimated potential growth, entered (a) lot of markets together. It was little too much, too soon,” he said as he blamed investors for backing aggressive expansion and then running away when global markets tumbled.

Byju Raveendran once confessed to misjudging the company’s growth potential, resulting in commercial complications, though he remains hopeful about turning things on their head.

Byju Raveendran on Thursday, October 17, said that he is willing to pay back all the money owed to lenders if they are willing to work with him adding that lenders will not get any money if the process of insolvency against the company continues.

“If they are willing to work with me, I am willing to give them money back before I take a single rupee out. We paid $140 million but they wanted the entire $1.2 billion which we had already committed or invested by then. There is no way we could have given them back for a long time. Most lenders wanted to settle but one or two wanted to make a killing out of it,” said Raveendran.

In December 2023, Raveendran pledged his home as well as those owned by his family members to raise money for paying employees, Bloomberg reported.

Byju’s operates in more than 21 countries and became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic by offering online education courses.