Facing a severe cash crunch, Byju’s founder Byju Raveendran has reportedly pledged his under-construction villa and his family members’ homes worth Rs 100 crore to pay salaries to employees.
Two homes owned by Raveendran’s family in Bengaluru and his under-construction villa in Epsilon — the most exclusive gated community in the city — were offered as collateral to borrow $12 million (approx Rs 100 crore), Bloomberg reported citing sources. The startup used the funds to pay salaries to 15,000 employees in Byju’s parent firm, Think & Learn Pvt, on Monday, the report said.
Tech investor Prosus has downgraded its valuation of Bujy’s, in which the former owns a stake, valuing the company at less than $3 billion, down significantly from the previous official valuation for the Bengaluru-based firm.
In October 2022, in what marked a peak for Byju’s, it was valued at more than $22 billion, when it raised a $250 million funding round. Prosus’ valuation of Byju’s, therefore, represents an 86% decline from what the edtech major was previously valued at, officially.
Many Indian businessmen led billionaire dollar empires but later saw a downfall in their businesses. One such person is Indian ed-tech Byju’s founder Byju Raveendran, who lost around Rs 30,600 crore a year. According to Forbes, he had a combined net worth of Rs 30,600 crore along with his family in 2022 but is now worth around Rs 833 crore (USD 100 million).
The Edtech major is also in process to raise ₹ 600-700 crore to fund the company’s operations till March by when it expects to realise money through the sale of Epic and partial stake sale in other subsidiaries, according to sources aware of the development.