Byju's founder Byju Raveendran, investors responsible for edtech firm's downturn: UpGrad's Ronnie Screwvala

UpGrad founder Ronnie Screwvala.

Byju Raveendran, the founder and CEO of embattled edtech giant Byju's, along with around 51 investors, are collectively responsible for the company's downturn, according to serial entrepreneur and investor Ronnie Screwvala.

“They (investors) felt that it was more important in board meetings to ask when's your next secondary versus ‘I don't see a CFO’ and so that one single aspect I don’t think is going to hold the whole education sector to ransom,” said Screwvala, while speaking at the second edition of the ASU+GSV & Emeritus Summit in Gurugram.

Screwvala added that “one rotten apple” in Indian edtech should not affect the entire sector. This comes at a time when the edtech sector in India faces a double whammy of plummeting investments and the fall of the most valued edtech company Byju’s.

The founder of the higher learning startup UpGrad has been one of the most outspoken critics of the edtech giant Byju's, as it navigated through a series of crises in the last couple of years. Screwvala's comments come ahead of a meeting he called with edtech founders in Delhi this week to discuss core issues pertaining to the edtech sector in India.

Earlier, Screwvala took to social networking platform X (formerly Twitter) to express support for the decision of Byju’s major shareholders to call an extraordinary general meeting to oust the current management and reconstitute the board.

Byju’s investors include the likes of General Atlantic, Sofina, Peak XV Partners and Prosus, among others.

“You need to be an active board member, you need to ask the right questions. Why would anyone stop asking questions after they put in $100 million to $4 billion? You have the right to do that. In those exact companies, if people had asked questions, they're now beginning to ask, four years back - it could have been a very different story. It may not have even raised 4 billion, it did,” added Screwvala.

He also said that investors and board members now need to exercise their fiduciary responsibility, ask the right questions and protect their investments.

This follows GSV’s co-founder and CEO Michael Moe's statement on the recent stumble of edtech decacorn Byju’s prompting a reevaluation of the fiduciary responsibilities of investors and the board within companies.