Why did bankrupt Byju’s rope in Shah Rukh Khan and Messi? Founder explains

Byju Raveendran (Courtesy: Bloomberg photo)

Byju Raveendran, founder of the now cash-strapped edtech giant BYJU’S, has defended the company’s high-profile endorsements featuring actor Shah Rukh Khan and football star Lionel Messi, saying the campaigns were aligned with their core mission.

“Shah Rukh Khan was creating awareness for our new segment. Look at all the commercials we have created with Shah Rukh Khan and Messi—it was talking about love for learning,” Raveendran told ANI. “Messi was talking about education for all, which is our largest not-for-profit initiative in terms of the scale it reached.”

Once India’s most valued startup, BYJU’S has faced a dramatic fall from its peak valuation of $22 billion in 2022, brought down by mounting debt, regulatory scrutiny, and failed global expansion plans.

Reflecting on the company’s struggles, Raveendran admitted to making “some business mistakes,” particularly in aggressively expanding into 21 countries during the pandemic.

“Maybe we could have taken it a little bit slowly. We were growing a little too soon, too fast. We went from India to 21 new countries. But if you ask me, in that context of 2019 to 2021, the COVID era, we have 160 investors, world-class investors, and equity investors. All of them - this was the mandate: grow, grow, grow and change the way kids learn," said Raveendran.

A key misstep, Raveendran acknowledged, was opting for a $1.2 billion term loan in 2021. “We had other options. We raised $5 billion before that. We were not doing it out of desperation. It was a collective decision,” he said.

He added that macroeconomic shocks, like the Russia-Ukraine war and rising interest rates, severely disrupted their plans. “We were raising money for growth...suddenly the liquidity dried up. $700 million of committed capital didn’t turn up,” Raveendran said. He noted that signed agreements fell through, but the company chose not to take legal action against investors who backed out.

Now, three years into a liquidity crunch, BYJU’S continues to face mounting challenges even as its founder insists the intentions behind earlier decisions—including celebrity endorsements—were mission-driven.

Launched in 2015, BYJU’S was once seen as the torchbearer of India’s edtech boom, catering to students from kindergarten to class 12. It achieved unicorn status by 2019 and hit its peak just before the global downturn.