Byju Raveendran, founder of embattled edtech giant BYJU’S, has admitted that the company made “business mistakes” by expanding too rapidly across 21 countries, under pressure from investors during the COVID-19 boom.
In an interview with ANI, Raveendran reflected on the company’s aggressive global expansion between 2019 and 2021, attributing the move to the mandate from over 160 equity investors pushing for accelerated growth.
“We were growing a little too soon, too fast. Maybe we could have slowed down. But the mandate was ‘grow, grow, grow’,” he said.
The edtech firm, once valued at $22 billion and the most valuable in India’s education sector, has been grappling with a severe liquidity crisis since early 2022. Raveendran said that much of the financial distress stemmed from $700 million in committed capital that failed to materialize due to global disruptions like the Russia-Ukraine war and rising interest rates following U.S. Federal Reserve tightening.
“The world changed. Interest rates spiked, liquidity dried up, and the war began. We were raising money for growth assuming the capital would come, but it didn’t,” he added.
Founded in 2015, BYJU’S catered to students from kindergarten to grade 12 and reached unicorn status by 2019. The company scaled quickly through acquisitions and global reach, peaking in 2022 before hitting turbulence. In 2024, Prosus, one of its investors, slashed its valuation by 75%, reflecting investor concern.
BYJU’S financial strain has since raised questions over governance, planning, and sustainability within India’s startup ecosystem. Raveendran’s admission marks a rare moment of candid reflection from one of the country’s highest-profile entrepreneurs.
