Byju Raveendran, the founder of troubled ed-tech firm Byju, has rubbished the rumours of moving to Dubai. He clarified that he had come to Dubai for his father’s treatment which became a prolonged stay. However, he ensured his return to India and the revival of his brand.
Byju has been facing legal and financial trouble ever since insolvency proceedings began after BCCI approached the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal to recover its Rs 158.9 crore dues. The ed-tech firm settled the entire dues, however, US lenders claimed $1.35 billion in dues against them, challenging the revoke of insolvency proceedings. Since then Raveendran has been staying in Dubai, which led to rumours that he left India to avoid creditors and regulatory authorities.
In a recent virtual press conference, Raveendran stated that he did not run away. "It's very unfortunate that people think that I ran to Dubai because I had to... I came to Dubai for a year for my father's treatment, which led to our ongoing stay. But let me be clear, I did not run away. I will come to India and I will fill stadiums... The timing has not been decided, but it will be soon,” he said.
Further, Raveendran also said that he is willing to repay all the money owed to lenders if they are willing to work with them. "If they are willing to work with me, I am willing to give them money back before I take a single rupee out. We paid $140 million but they wanted the entire $1.2 billion which we had already committed or invested by then. There is no way we could have given them back for a long time. Most lenders wanted to settle but one or two wanted to make a killing out of it," he added.
Raveendran’s Byju offers online tutorials on several subjects including math, physics and chemistry for school students. The company’s valuation shot up from $5 billion to $22 billion in 2022 in the pandemic. However, the ongoing crisis has plummeted the valuation to less than $ 2 billion.
