New Delhi: Byju’s woes never seem to end. From the poster boy of the startup space at the height of the Work From Home boom to being forced to sell practically everything he owns, Byju Raveendran has seen it all. In 2021, Byju’s acquired two US-basd companies, reading platform Epic and K-12 coding education platform Tynker for $500 million and $200 million respectively. According to reports, a US bankruptcy court has approved the sale of both companies to help Byju’s lenders recover its dues from the company.
Byju’s US unit, Byju’s Alpha faced allegations of loan default and mismanagement, eventually leading to the asset auction. Epic was sold to Chinese EdTech company TAL education group for $95 million while computer science learning platform CodeHS acquired Tynker for $2.2 million.
A teacher turned entrepreneur, Byju’s aimed to aggressively expand his business globally through acquisitions after a promising start post the COVID pandemic. At its peak, it was worth $22 billion in 2022, even as it worked to integrate its various acquired companies into its fold. Two years later, an HSBC report estimated that the company was worth nothing, even as its investors and creditors complained about the way the company was mismanaging its finances.
Byju’s holding company, Think and Learn Pvt Ltd, had spent almost $2.8 billion buying 12 companies in the education niche between 2017 and 2021. Other companies that Byju acquired, including Aakash Institute and Great Learning, are now working independently, distancing themselves from Byju Ravenndran, who has now fled abroad.
