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Byju Raveendran, founder of embattled edtech group Byju’s, admitted on Thursday afternoon that he had made mistakes, misjudged the market, overestimated the growth potential, and that his startup, once worth $22 billion, was now worth “zero.”
Speaking to a group of journalists, Raveendran said the company’s aggressive acquisition of more than two dozen startups to expand into new markets proved fatal when funding dried up in 2022. Byju’s had been planning to go public in early 2022 with several… Investment bankers evaluate the company. TechCrunch previously reported that up to $50 billion.
He claimed that many of his investors, numbering more than 100, urged him to continue expanding aggressively in as many as 40 markets. But those same investors got scared when global markets tanked in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, sending the venture capital market into a downward spiral, he added.
Many of his investors have “flighted,” Raveendran said, and the departure of three major backers — Prosus Ventures, Peak
Representatives of the three aforementioned companies as well as auditor Deloitte left the startup’s board of directors last year, citing governance issues.
Byju has since entered bankruptcy proceedings, and Raveendran, who no longer controls the company, said: “It’s worth zero. What valuation are you talking about? It’s worth zero.”
Byju’s, once India’s most valuable startup, counts among its backers BlackRock, UBS, Lightspeed, QIA, Bond, Silver Lake, Sofina, Verlinvest, Tencent, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, General Atlantic, Tiger Global and Owl Ventures, and the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank. . It has raised more than $5 billion to date.
Raveendran said he is still hopeful that his startup will make a comeback. “I have nothing to lose. I come from a small village. I have invested everything I have in the startup.”
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