Byju's: Dissecting the fall of the Indian unicorn!

In the ever-evolving and dynamic landscape of India's Ed-Tech revolution, one name stood out like a star: Byju's.

Once hailed as the poster child of the country's Ed-Tech revolution, Byju's has had a rollercoaster ride of highs and lows. From modest beginnings to meteoric rise to drastic collapse, the story of Byju's has been a tantalising tale of ambition, innovation, and the pitfalls of unchecked growth.

The Genesis

In 2011, Byju Raveendran, a maverick educator turned entrepreneur, planted the seeds of what would soon become a revolution in Indian education - Byju's.  

Started humbly as a coaching centre in Bengaluru, the institution quickly evolved into a tech-driven powerhouse with a mission to democratise education.

In the same year, Byju Raveendran registered Think and Learn Pvt Ltd. — the parent company of Byju’s, with Divya Gokulnath, a biotech engineer and a former student he later married.

As the startup and funding ecosystem surged in the 2010s, investors started to line up to back Raveendran's vision. The company's first breakthrough came in 2015 with the launch of "The Learning App." 

The app set the stage for Byju's meteoric rise, attracting millions of users and garnering investments from industry titans and global investors like Sequoia Capital, Tencent Holdings, General Atlantic, BlackRock, and more.

The company did not just grow in financial terms - it expanded its offerings from K-12 education to competitive exam preparation and, later, even to international markets. Every step was a conscious move to attain inclusivity in education and break barriers.

The Ascent

As the world grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic, Byju's emerged as a lifeline for students seeking continuity in learning. The surge in demand propelled Byju's to unicorn status by 2018, with 15 million registered users and a valuation of billions of dollars.


"Byju's kept on growing, and investors kept putting money into it."
- Aniruddha Malpani,
an angel investor and vocal critic of Byju's business model said the company had "paper fortunes".


In 2019, Byju's became the most valued Ed-Tech company across the world, earning ~₹2400 crores in revenue in 2020.

Buoyed by its success, Byju's embarked on an ambitious acquisition spree in 2021, spending ~$2 billion to acquire WhiteHat Jr, Aakash, Toppr, Epic, and Great Learning. Byju's surpassed industry giants like PayTM, cementing its status as India's most-valued startup.

The firm went on a marketing blitz, signing the celebrated Football player Lionel Messi, with the Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan as its brand ambassador. Byju's even became the main sponsor of the Indian Cricket Team and an official sponsor of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

By 2022, the number of registered students on the app grew from ~22 million to ~115 million, with Byju's valuation reaching a whopping ~22 billion U.S. dollars.

The Fall

Cracks began to appear in Byju's seemingly invincible facade with the reopening of schools and other educational institutions, highly impacting its revenues.

In an attempt to keep up with the image it created, the company strayed from its mission of delivering high-quality education to selling hardware devices like laptops and tablets to students. The shift, accompanied by the use of aggressive and unethical sales tactics tarnished Byju's once-sterling reputation.

Parents started to come forward, accusing Byju's of coercing them into buying courses they could not afford by making comments like “Your daughter will end up poor like you.” The customers, mostly from low-income houses, were tricked into taking loans, exploiting their aspirations and hopes for their children's academic success, eventually leaving them out of money.

Behind the scenes, employee harassment reports also started to emerge. Former and current employees spoke out, shedding light on the toxic work culture, including instances of discrimination and harassment within the company.

Pratik Makhija, a former Byju's salesman, described the work culture as undergoing "daily mental torture".

 “You feel like you're trapped at the bottom of a well, with no way out to climb out and enjoy the outside world. There is no work-life balance. Zero!” added Makhija.

But, the problems for Byju's were just getting started.
In 2021, the company officials received a summons from India’s enforcement directorate, questioning why the firm couldn't close its financial accounting for the fiscal year. The summons were also a result of leadership's repeated disregard of advice and recommendations on strategy, operations, and corporate governance matters.

Eighteen months after the financial year closed, Byju’s finally released audited statements, but the multifold increase in losses did not help in bandaging the lost reputation.

Prompted by significant delays in releasing financial statements, Deloitte Haskins & Sells also resigned as the company's auditors.
In an attempt to ease the investors, Raveendran participated in a funding round in 2022. However, the difficulties mounted as the actual funding did not materialise in July 2022 when investment firms, Sumeru Ventures and Vitruvian Partners, backed out, failing to transfer the $250 million sum.
Prosus, the company's biggest investor and shareholder, slashed its valuation from $22 billion to $1.5 billion in 2023.

Byju's ambitious expansion spree and overreliance on external funding came back to haunt it, exposing the fault lines in its financial fortress and triggering alarm bells among investors and industry insiders. Creditors, including Blackstone, offloaded their holdings. Peak XV, Prosus, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative quit the company board. 

A Failed Attempt at Redemption

Byju's attempts to address these challenges through restructuring initiatives, slowing down its expansion, and investing in improving its corporate governance practices were met with scepticism.

The company halved its employees from nearly 58k in March 2022 to 24.5k in May 2023. The sweeping layoffs from the company in a restructuring initiative sent shockwaves through its workforce and the larger startup ecosystem.
Whispers of discontent grew louder as tales of internal strife and leadership upheaval swirled, casting a shadow over Byju's once-golden reputation.
Byju Raveendran, earlier hailed as a visionary entrepreneur, faced backlash for alleged mismanagement and failure to address the mounting challenges of the company.

A group of shareholders went as far as to hold an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), passing votes and resolutions to oust Raveendran as the CEO and also removing Divya (Byju’s wife) and Riju (Byju’s brother) from the board.
The founder got some interim relief from the Karnataka High Court, which clearly stated that any decision taken during the meeting would not take effect until the next hearing. However, the calls for leadership change and accountability have only grown louder, with stakeholders questioning the long-term viability of its current leadership.

Faced with mounting pressure and dwindling resources, Byju's took the bold decision to shutter all its physical learning centres except for its headquarters in Bangalore in 2024, signalling a seismic shift towards a digital-first strategy.

According to the Economic Times,
"Byju's gambit to go all-in on digital learning represents a make-or-break moment for the company, with profound implications for the future of education in India and beyond."

The Future:

As Byju's navigates choppy waters, its journey serves as both a cautionary tale and a testament to the resilience of India's startup ecosystem. With the stakes higher than ever, the fate of Byju's hangs in the balance, poised to either succumb to its demons or emerge stronger from the crucible of adversity.

In the fast-paced world of new ways of learning, where innovation and disruption go hand in hand, the story of Byju's is a reminder of the perils of unchecked ambition and the enduring power of perseverance. 

As the company charts its course through uncertain seas, one thing remains clear: the journey is far from over, or, is it?