Business As Usual At BYJU’S, Co’s Comeback Inevitable Now: Byju Raveendran

A day after the investors of BYJU’S held an extraordinary general meeting (EGM), the beleaguered edtech giant’s founder and CEO Byju Raveendran told employees that it is business as usual at the company. 

In an email sent to the employees, Raveendran said he continues to be the CEO of BYJU’S and its management and board remain unchanged. 

Inc42 has accessed the email sent by Raveendran.

It is pertinent to note that BYJU’S investors said on Friday that all the resolutions, including those calling for ouster of Raveendran and his family members from the edtech’s leadership team and reconstitution of its board, were unanimously passed during the EGM.

However, Raveendran, in his email, reiterated that the EGM was held in violation of rules and the resolutions passed are invalid. 

“The claims made by a small group of select minority shareholders that they have unanimously passed the resolution in the EGM is completely wrong. Only 35 out of 170 shareholders (representing around 45% of shareholding) voted in favour of the resolution. That in itself shows the very limited support that this irrelevant meeting received,” he said.

Raveendran also said that the company’s “minority shareholders are intent on spreading misinformation in the media”. 

“… the rumours of my firing have been greatly exaggerated and highly inaccurate,” he claimed.

Talking about the company’s ongoing $200 Mn rights issue at a valuation cut of over 99%, the CEO said it has received an “overwhelming response”.

“In fact, such has been the scale of its success that even those who were sitting on the fence are now rushing to get a piece of the action. This momentum is irreversible, and our comeback is now inevitable,” he added.

Earlier this week, the cash-strapped startup said that its rights issue was fully subscribed.

This marks another chapter in the long-running feud between Raveendran and investors of BYJU’S. Last year, three representatives of BYJU’S investors – GV Ravishankar of Peak XV Partners, Russell Dreisenstock of Prosus, and Vivian Wu of Chan Zuckerberg Initiative – resigned from its board.

The company has been fighting multiple battles over the last year or so, including mounting losses, delays in filing financial statements, layoffs, cash crunch, and regulatory scrutiny.

Amid the ongoing battle with investors, BYJU’S also moved the Karnataka High Court against the decision of its investors to hold an EGM. In a temporary relief, the court said in an interim order that any decisions taken at the company’s EGM would not come into effect till the next hearing on March 13.

Meanwhile, a group of BYJU’S investors moved the Bengaluru bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and filed a petition for oppression and mismanagement of the company. The petitioners are seeking CEO Raveendran and cofounder Divya Gokulnath be declared unfit to run BYJU’S and the appointment of a new board. 

As such, it seems that the matter will now be decided by the courts.