In a dramatic fall from grace, Byju Raveendran, founder of Indian edtech company Byju’s, has admitted to significant mistakes that led to the company’s downfall. Speaking to.
Bottom line: Once a celebrated edtech company in India, Byju’s serves as a stark reminder of how quickly fortunes can change in the high-stakes world of tech startups. It’s a narrative that will likely be studied and debated in business schools and boardrooms for years.
In a dramatic fall from grace, Byju Raveendran, founder of Indian edtech company Byju’s, has admitted to significant mistakes that led to the company’s downfall. Speaking to journalists this week, Raveendran revealed that the startup, once valued at $22 billion, is now effectively worth «zero.»
Byju’s meteoric rise began during the COVID-19 pandemic, when demand for online education soared. The company expanded rapidly, acquiring over two dozen startups and entering numerous international markets. At its peak, investment bankers projected valuations as high as $50 billion for a potential IPO in early 2022.
Now, Raveendran, who no longer controls the company, acknowledges that this aggressive growth strategy proved to be the company’s undoing. «We overestimated potential growth and entered too many markets at once.
