"Made Some Business Mistakes": Byju's Founder Amid Crisis

Byju Raveendran, founder of beleaguered edtech giant BYJU'S, acknowledged that the company made "some business mistakes" when it expanded "too fast" to 21 countries due to the 'mandate' from the world-class investors.

"When we tried expanding from India to the whole world, We made some business mistakes. Maybe we could have taken it a little bit slowly. We were growing a little too soon, too fast. We went from India to 21 new countries. But if you ask me, in that context of 2019 to 2021, the COVID era, We have 160 investors, world-class investors, and equity investors. All of them - this was the mandate grow, grow, grow and change the way kids learn," Mr Raveendran told ANI.

Founder of once the most valuable edtech in the country, with about USD 22 billion valuation in 2022, also accepted that due to "external macro reasons" such as the Russia-Ukraine war, major investments promised by the investors dried up, impacting the expansion and acquisition plans.

"We were raising money for growth at that time. But when the world changed when interest rates went up, when Fed increased the interest rate and, almost simultaneously, the big war started, Russia and Ukraine, suddenly the liquidity dried up. 700 million of committed capital; signed committed capital didn't turn up," he added.

He asserted that the edtech company was at the time planning its acquisition plans and growth, assuming that they would get the promised funds. Mr Raveendran further admitted that the edtech has been struggling for liquidity for almost three years now.

"So we were planning all these acquisitions and growth, assuming that all this money is coming. In fact, this was signed documents. There was no litigation. We didn't go and litigate those investors who backed out because of these external macro reasons. And from then onwards, and this is early 2022, and it's almost now three years, we have been struggling for liquidity. But fortunately, we had enough liquidity, which we made, and I have no regrets in terms of putting all that money back," he said.

Launched in 2015, the edtech catered to students from kindergarten to class 12. The company achieved the 'Unicorn" status, valued over USD 1 billion by 2019 and then touching the USD 22 billion valuation mark in 2022.

In June 2024, Prosus, a firm which invests in tech-based companies, slashed BYJU's valuation by 75 per cent.

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