'Byju Raveendran, founder of embattled edtech firm Byju’s, has opened up about the company’s rapid fall from grace, admitting that key strategic errors — especially during its aggressive expansion into 21 countries — led to the current financial and legal crisis.
In an interview with news agency ANI, Raveendran reflected candidly on the decisions that derailed what was once India’s most valuable startup, valued at $22 billion (around ₹1.8 lakh crore).
Raveendran said one of the gravest errors was the decision in 2021 to take a $1.2 billion term loan (approximately ₹10,000 crore) despite having other equity options on the table.
“That loan decision turned out to be the wrong one. We had other paths available,” he said.
Prior to that, the company had already raised $5 billion (around ₹42,000 crore). However, the choice to leverage debt instead of continuing with equity fundraising has been cited as a turning point that snowballed into today’s crisis.
Attempting to scale rapidly from India into 21 countries, Byju’s misjudged the pace of its international expansion. “Maybe we should have taken it slow. We tried to grow very fast,” he admitted.
During the COVID-19 boom from 2019 to 2021, the company had backing from around 160 investors. But the momentum faded, and several potential investors pulled out amid global events like the Russia-Ukraine war, he added, severely affecting the company's growth trajectory.
Raveendran said the collapse of Byju’s is not just a company-level tragedy, but a national setback. “India has also lost something big,” he said, referring to his ambition of creating 1 million teaching jobs through Byju’s.
“It might sound like a lofty goal now, but we did manage to create 40,000 teaching jobs,” he added.
Raveendran issued an apology to students whose learning was disrupted after Byju’s operations were stalled. “I’m sorry to the students whose education was affected, even if it’s just one student. That should never happen,” he said.
According to him, it was only after legal proceedings began in 2023 that the company was unable to pay salaries, leading to cancelled classes. Nevertheless, he emphasised that Byju’s had successfully delivered learning to millions of students over the years.
Looking forward, Raveendran is placing hope in “Byju’s 3.0”, a comeback powered by artificial intelligence. He claims the platform will empower AI tutors with stronger tools, aiming to provide “one teacher for every student.”
He asserted that user engagement has increased, with more students using the app now than before. Byju’s currently has over 250 million users on its platform, he said.
Meanwhile, Divya Gokulnath — co-founder of Byju’s and Raveendran’s wife — clarified that the loans taken by the company were never diverted for personal use. “If we had that kind of money, we wouldn’t be struggling to fight legal battles now,” she said.
Divya explained that the cost of hiring lawyers in the US is prohibitively high, and the company has been unable to afford legal representation in some cases. “The courts are continuously ruling against us because we can’t hire lawyers. If we had the loan money with us, would this have been the case?” she asked.
She also addressed the emotional toll, saying the personal attacks they’re facing are deeply distressing. “Byju’s belongs in classrooms, not courtrooms,” she stated.
