The net worth of Byju Raveendran, the founder of edtech company Byju's, has plunged to zero as per the latest Forbes Billionaire Index.
Raveendran's net worth was Rs 17,545 crore ($2.1 billion) a year ago, but has now vanished amid many challenges that surround the edtech company.
"Only four people from last year's list dropped off this time, including former edtech star Byju Raveendran, whose firm Byju's was enveloped in multiple crises and its valuation was marked down by BlackRock to $1 billion, a fraction of its peak $22 billion valuation in 2022," said Forbes.
Started in 2011, Byju's quickly became India's most valuable startup, hitting $22 billion in 2022. Byju's app changed education, helping students from primary school to MBA. But recent money reports and problems have hit the company hard.
Things got worse when Byju's finally showed their money results for the year ending March 2022. They had lost over $1 billion. BlackRock, a big investor, then said Byju's was only worth $1 billion, way less than before.
Raveendran has faced criticism due to the company's issues. Byju's shareholders, including Prosus NV and Peak XV Partners, recently voted to remove Mr. Raveendran as CEO. This has intensified a struggle over the future of the once successful online tutoring startup, which is trying hard to stay in operation.
Byju's also faced trouble from foreign investments, with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) looking into it. "Before the lookout circular against its founder, the ED issued show-cause notices to Byju's parent firm Think & Learn over alleged violations worth over Rs 9,362 crore under the Foreign Exchange Management Act," the NDTV report quoted sources as saying.
As Byju's deals with big challenges, Raveendran's fall from billionaire to zero serves as a big reminder of how risky startups can be.
