Byju Raveendran, the founder of edtech firm Byju’s, has been sentenced to six months in jail by a Singapore court in a contempt of court case linked to ongoing disputes over company assets and disclosures, Bloomberg reported.
The order marks the latest setback for the once high-flying startup that was valued at nearly $22 billion at its peak before collapsing under debt, legal disputes, governance concerns and mounting employee dues.
How the Singapore legal battle unfolded
While the legal battle was going on in the US courts, the lenders pursued Byju’s in Singapore. The country emerged as another major legal front after a subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority initiated proceedings linked to investments and asset transfers involving entities connected to Byju Raveendran.
According to a report by NDTV, the dispute stemmed from financing arrangements related to the acquisition of Aakash Educational Services shares. Singapore courts later sought asset disclosures and ownership documents, concluding that Raveendran had failed to comply with multiple court orders issued since April 2024.
The court has now sentenced him to six months in jail for contempt of court. It instructed Raveendran to surrender himself and pay S$ 90,000 (USD 70,500), while asking him to prove his legal ownership of Beeaar Investco Pte — a corporate entity holding shares in a related company, Bloomberg reported.
How Byju’s became India’s biggest edtech startup
Founded in 2011 as Think & Learn Pvt Ltd, Byju’s grew rapidly by offering online learning programmes for school students and competitive exams. The smartphone boom and the era of online learning boosted the company’s rapid growth. The company saw explosive growth during the Covid-19 pandemic as schools shifted online.
The business boomed, and the company’s valuation surged from $5 billion before the pandemic to $22 billion in 2022, with Byju’s acquiring several companies during the time.
Global investors, including Sequoia Capital, Prosus, General Atlantic and Qatar Investment Authority, backed the startup. Byju’s also spent aggressively on acquisitions, buying firms such as WhiteHat Jr, Aakash Educational Services, Toppr and Great Learning.
At its peak, the company became India’s most valuable startup.
What triggered the collapse?
The troubles began after pandemic-era growth slowed and the company struggled to manage its massive expansion.
Byju’s came under scrutiny over delayed financial filings, rising losses and cash burn. Its auditor, Deloitte, resigned in 2023, citing delays in financial statements, while key board members also stepped down.
Questions were also raised over the company’s accounting practices and aggressive sales tactics. Consumer complaints and criticism over education loans and refund policies further damaged its reputation.
The $1.2 billion loan dispute
A major flashpoint was Byju’s $1.2 billion term loan raised in the US in 2021.
Lenders later accused the company of hiding or improperly transferring nearly $533 million linked to the loan proceeds. US courts passed multiple orders seeking disclosure of the funds and held company executives in contempt in related proceedings.
Reports also said a US bankruptcy court ordered Raveendran to pay over $1 billion in a default judgment tied to the dispute.
Byju’s denied wrongdoing and blamed some lenders and investors for worsening the crisis.
Salary delays and layoffs
As funding dried up, Byju’s began large-scale layoffs across departments and subsidiaries.
Thousands of employees complained of delayed or unpaid salaries for months. Teachers and staff publicly spoke about financial distress, while many workers filed claims during insolvency proceedings.
The company also shut down or scaled down several businesses as it tried to cut costs.
Investor revolt and insolvency battle
Major investors eventually moved against the founders, accusing them of mismanagement and poor governance.
In 2024, shareholders sought the removal of Raveendran from the company’s leadership. Around the same time, insolvency proceedings were initiated against Byju’s parent company, Think & Learn Pvt Ltd, over unpaid dues to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
The edtech company had signed a major sponsorship deal with the apex cricket body in 2019 and later renewed it, but payment defaults emerged as Byju’s financial troubles deepened. The dispute eventually reached the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), where insolvency proceedings were initiated against Think & Learn Pvt Ltd after the BCCI claimed unpaid dues of around ₹158 crore.
The Supreme Court of India later allowed insolvency proceedings to continue amid challenges from lenders and investors.
From startup success story to legal crisis
Byju’s was once seen as a symbol of India’s startup boom and attracted billions of dollars in foreign investment.
But rapid expansion, costly acquisitions, governance disputes, delayed disclosures and mounting debt pushed the company into crisis within a few years. The Singapore sentencing now adds to the growing legal troubles surrounding the founder and the collapsed edtech giant.
