Byju Raveendran is racing against time to save BYJU’S. Once India’s most celebrated tech entrepreneur, Raveendran & family, have seen a massive fall from grace and BYJU’S is battling insolvency proceedings from multiple corners.

Addressing employees this past week, Raveendran attempted to show that the company is on track to overcome this tough period after months of uncertainty.

“I want to remind all of you that we are still the largest edtech platform globally with 150 Mn students using our products and services every month. Despite the recent challenges faced, this organic user base has doubled over the last two years. Indeed, BYJU’S is transitioning to a sustainable business model that serves millions of students across India and employs thousands of people,” the CEO wrote to employees, several of whom have not been paid for months.

This is not the first time that Raveendran has tried to rally employees to get behind the company, however, BYJU’S is in a more precarious position than ever before.

While the leadership has been out of India for most of the past year, the company is on the brink of bankruptcy. The odds are stacked against Raveendran and his wife and cofounder Divya Gokulnath, and it all seems to be going awfully wrong.

But where did the BYJU’S story begin? And will this saga have a bitter end with Raveendran being forced to relinquish the giant he built, and which many accuse him of bringing down as well. How did the highest valued startup in India at one time reach this nadir?

The Early Days: Byju Before BYJU’S

It was 2010, and Raveendran was a noted teacher for the Common Admission Test or CAT, an exam one is required to take to enter the IIM B-schools.

Raveendran began with classes at Jyoti Nivas College in Bengaluru’s Koramangala area, and his classes were said to be running chock-full. So much so that Raveendran had to book stadiums and college auditoriums to teach thousands of CAT aspirants.

These ‘Byju’s’ classes were a rage in most of the southern Indian states, where convention came second to outcomes. Raveendran, a self-educated teacher and learner as he likes to call himself, had appeared for CAT and topped the exams twice. He is said to have received and rejected offers from the six IIMs between 2005 and 2007. Instead, he joined a UK-based firm where he worked for three years, before pursuing his calling as a teacher in 2010.

By then, Raveendran had taken his individual brand and incorporated a company Think & Learn Private Limited to run operations. And two years after this journey began and with considerable attention surrounding his classes, Raveendran was introduced to Ranjan Pai, the chairman of the Manipal Group, and Infosys’s former CFO Mohandas Pai, who also ran venture fund Aarin Capital.

Ranjan Pai and Mohandas Pai wrote the first cheque for BYJU’S in 2013 for a combined stake of 26% and the juggernaut started rolling on.

Byju Raveendran Wears The Founder’s Hat

After that first investment, there really was no turning back. In fact, it’s a theme we will revisit time and again when it comes to BYJU’S

Even though the early years for BYJU’S were around offline classes, the startup launched its first smartphone app in 2015. By then more investors had joined the company’s cap table. Aarin Capital invested in the $25 Mn Series B, before the company raised a massive $145 Mn in 2016, and another $70 Mn in the next year.

Armed with more capital than most Indian startups see in their lifetime, BYJU’S went about acquiring students by millions. Massive ad campaigns were launched featuring superstars such as Shah Rukh Khan, Mohanlal among others.

Naturally, BYJU’S was also a very attractive employer. It was offering unprecedented pay — at the time for Indian startups — and the company became a workforce and sales engine. Raveendran often threw people at the problem, employing basic graduates who could sell tablets preloaded with BYJU’S courses

By 2019, nearly a decade after Raveendran began his solo adventure, BYJU’S was now a massive empire with more than 50,000 employees. Offices were set up in India, US, UAE and it seemed like Raveendran wanted a global domination in edtech.

The........

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