Byju’s promoters sold shares worth $408.53 million since 2015: PrivateCircle

Byju's, the learning app logo on phone screen. Image Credit: sdx15 / Shutterstock.com

The promoters of India’s most valued startup Byju's - Byju Raveendran, Divya Gokulnath and Riju Ravindran have together sold shares worth around $408.53 million in 40 secondary transactions since 2015, report shows at a time when the Edtech company is fielding off troubles on multiple fronts.

In a statement, PrivateCircle Research, a private market intelligence platform, said Raveendran's brother and a member of Byju’s board Riju Ravindran sold 337,911 shares worth $375.83 million since 2015, whereas Raveendran’s wife and co-founder Gokulnath sold 64,565 shares worth $29.40 million.

Meanwhile, Raveendran sold 29,306 shares worth $3.28 million since 2015, while purchasing about 31,960 shares from multiple sellers including members of his family and employees of the company since 2012, PrivateCircle highlighted.

Raveendran, in a recent mail to employees, also said that he has reinvested all the money received from the secondary sale of shares. “By reinvesting the entire amount received through secondary sales back into the company, my commitment to the mission and the conviction on the potential of BYJU'S is unwavering and unshakeable,” he said.

The research firm said that Raveendran purchased shares from his father Ravindran Kunnaruvath and the company’s employees including Arunangshu Bhakta, Brijesh Maheshbhai Patel, Smit Rajanikant Patel, Unique Jain, and Pravin Prakash.

At the same time, Gokulnath purchased a total of 4,666 shares from Navin Balan and Priya Mohan - the founders of Vidyartha, a company Byju’s acquired in 2017.

The data shows that Ravindran also purchased 100 shares from Mrinal Mohit, the COO of Byju’s. However, the value of this purchase could not be ascertained.

The research firm said the findings are based on various public data sources. In two instances where the secondary share price was not available, PrivateCircle has used the closest available primary share price, it said.

To be sure, the shareholding of promoters of the edtech company has been on a gradual decline since 2016.

According to PrivateCircle, the first significant drop was between 2015 to 2016, when the promoters stake dipped to 54.7 percent from 71.6 percent and later came down to 34.7 percent in 2019.

Byju’s promoters, as of today, hold a 21.2 percent stake in the edtech company with Byju Raveendran holding a majority share of 15.9 percent, whereas Divya Gokulnath and Riju Ravindran have 3.32 percent and 1.99 percent respectively, the data showed.

PrivateCircle also said that multiple investors participated in Byju’s secondary transactions including the likes of Silver Lake Partners, Blackrock, T Rowe Price, Chan Zuckerberg, Owl Ventures, Naspers, Times Internet, Lightspeed Ventures, Proxima Beta, Naspers Ventures, General Atlantic, and Alkeon.

The research firm highlighted that the secondary deals were, in some cases, executed at a discounted valuation as compared to the company’s primary valuation at that time.

For instance, an average of 53 percent discount was observed in secondary sales during its Series F round. During this round, Byju’s promoters sold their shares in the price range of Rs 1,12,126 - Rs 1,64,000 per share and the Series F primary share price was in the range of Rs 2,13,042 - Rs 2,37,336, the firm said.