Several businessmen in India made billion-dollar business empires but later suffered major losses. One such person who built erstwhile India’s most valued startup, Byju's, is Byju Raveendran. The online ed-tech giant Byju's was once India's most valuable start-up at USD 22 billion (around Rs 1,83,000 crore) in 2022. It was founded by Raveendran and his wife Divya in 2011. The company has been facing financial trouble for the last year. Now, the asset manager BlackRock, which owns a stake of less than 1% in the embattled ed-tech firm, has slashed its valuation of the latter. The firm has seen a massive (95 per cent) drop in its valuation, and is now worth USD 1 billion (Rs 8290 crore), TechCrunch reported.
As per the report, BlackRock valued its shares in Byju's at USD 209.6 apiece, translating to a valuation of USD 1 billion at the end of October 2023. The asset manager valued its share at USD 4660 apiece in 2022, which translated to USD 22 billion (around Rs 1,83,000 crore at the time). The former billionaire, Raveendran, who had a combined net worth of Rs 30,600 crore along with his family just last year is now worth only a little over Rs 833 crore.
In December 2023, Raveendran pledged his home as well as those owned by his family members to raise money for paying employees, Bloomberg reported. His wife Divya, his former student, helps him run the company. She also sits on the board. A former math tutor, Raveendran was born in Kerala to Raveendran and Shobhanavalli, physics and mathematics teachers, respectively.
After completing his B.Tech from the Government College of Engineering, Kannur, he joined a multinational shipping company as a service engineer. He helped his friends who were studying for the CAT exam. He then took the CAT exam and scored in the 100th percentile. Two years later, he continued helping people study for the CAT exam, and based on the good results, decided to quit his job.
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