Inside BYJU’S Rabbit Hole, Startup Funding Spirals & More

Byju Raveendran Cries Foul Over EY’s Actions 

There seems to be no end to the twists and turns in the BYJU’S saga. Now, the troubled edtech’s founder and CEO Byju Raveendran has raised questions over the ongoing insolvency proceedings against the company. 

In a LinkedIn post, Raveendran alleged that he has documents that show “conclusive evidence of criminal collusion” between EY India, the lenders and Pankaj Srivastava (IRP). While he did not divulge any further details, he called for a government probe into the matter. 

In fact, training his guns at Srivastava, Raveendran said that he was appointed by an Indian court to protect BYJU’S but “ended up destroying it”. 

Curiously, this follows a viral post online by a whistleblower, alleging that Srivastava had hired EY India to advise on the insolvency proceedings even though the audit firm had a conflict of interest, as it has been working alongside the lenders of BYJU’S on a related matter. 

Meanwhile, Raveendran is likely in for a rocky ride as the NCLT, which is hearing the insolvency case against BYJU’S, has appointed Shailendra Ajmera, also an EY India executive, as the new RP of the troubled company. 

On top of this, lenders are now part of its committee of creditors and are looking to extract whatever remains of the once poster child of India’s edtech revolution.

In addition, a US bankruptcy court has ruled in favour of the creditors in connection with the fraudulent transfer of $533 Mn out of the $1.2 Bn term loan B (TLB) extended to the edtech startup. 

Not to mention, the BYJU’S rabbit hole is deeper than this. However, for now, here’s a quick look at the troubled edtech startup getting a new IRP. Continue reading…

From The Editor’s Desk

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Inc42 Startup Spotlight

Can ParkMate Put An End To India’s Parking Chaos?

In a country with more than 140 Cr people and 5 Cr cars plying on the roads, there is no describing the challenge of finding a parking spot. After battling the menace in New Delhi himself, Dhananjay Bharadwaj teamed up with his friend Abhimanyu Singh and founded ParkMate in 2021 to address these woes.

The duo’s car management application enables users to simply feed in their destination. After reaching the spot, customers can find a ParkMate representative who would park the car to a nearby official car parking spot.   

The application also has a ‘Get My Car’ feature where the users can summon their car to any nearby spot, and the ParkMate officials would bring the car to them. Moreover, the app also has an in-built GPS system which helps the car owners to track their car and can also have a 360-degree view of their parked car. 

Currently, the Delhi NCR-based startup is focussed on catering to its B2B clients, including corporate offices, campuses and institutions. 

Going forward, the startup plans to enter the B2C space, targeting regular car owners to tap the ~$436 Mn parking systems market in India. It claims to have recorded revenues of INR 6.5 Cr in FY24 and aims to hit a top line of INR 10-12 Cr in the ongoing fiscal.