Byju: The co-founder and CEO of the large edtech company Byju’s, Byju Raveendran, gave a virtual town hall presentation to staff on Thursday and promised a great recovery for the business. He claimed that Byju’s best work was yet to come. After a flurry of unfavourable events involving the edtech startup, including layoffs, high-profile board departures, value decreases, investigations, and an ongoing legal dispute over a $1.2 billion term loan, this was his first official message to the workforce.
Byju’s CEO Stays Positive Amid Challenges
Byju Raveendran was quoted by the Economic Times as saying that “things are not as bad as you think – as you read in the media, for sure”. He added that the startup is now more effective than it was six months ago. The CEO of the edtech company claimed that the business has a solid foundation and would continue to develop going forward. He acknowledged that the business has had a difficult year thus far, but he focused mostly on technology and education. According to Raveendran, the company’s journey has been uneven, with both successful and unsuccessful acquisitions. As the forerunner of edtech in India, the company is in the right place, he continued, and is working to address the issues. He didn’t mention the company’s recent tens of thousands of layoffs, though.
Byju’s Faces Board Member Resignations and Auditor Woes as Challenges Mount
GV Ravishankar, managing director at Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India), Russell Dreisenstock of Prosus (formerly Naspers), and Vivian Wu of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative were three board members that left Byju’s just a week ago. Deloitte’s resignation as the business’s auditor on the same day that Byju’s appointed BDO (MSKA & Associates) as its statutory auditor only made matters worse for the edtech startup. Byju’s Deloitte had “amicable terms” and left on a mutual decision, according to Raveendran. “This is mainly after facing substantial delays with Deloitte during last year’s challenging audit. That is when we decided that and were just waiting for the right time,” he was quoted as saying in the ET report. Deloitte, however, announced its resignation and claimed that it had not been given the papers it needed to finish the audit on schedule. Deloitte stated that the financial results for the year ended March 31, 2022, are well behind schedule in a letter to the board of directors of Think & Learn Private Limited, the parent company of Byju. They would be substantially less able to organise, develop, carry out, and finish the audit, it was claimed. So it made the decision to leave. Investors were subsequently informed by Byju’s that the company would submit the 2022 audited earnings by September and the 2023 results by December.
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