The Rise and Fall of Byju Raveendran

There was once a boy. A boy who loved math. A boy who could crack the toughest exams without breaking a sweat. His name was Byju Raveendran.

Byju Raveendran wasn't meant to be a billionaire.

He wasn't a Silicon Valley-trained entrepreneur, nor did he have an MBA from an Ivy League school. He was a small-town boy from Azhikode, Kerala, raised by two schoolteacher parents in a home where education was not just important—it was sacred.

But unlike the children his parents taught, Raveendran wasn't a studious child in the traditional sense. He didn't believe in rote learning. Memorisation bored him. If he couldn't understand something, he wouldn't move on until he did. Numbers, logic, patterns—they fascinated him. He turned math into a game, not a subject.

This curiosity led him to engineering, but not because it was the traditional "safe" path. No, Raveendran loved solving problems. He became an engineer but not a corporate worker. Instead, his true calling unexpectedly found him—through a classroom.

Friends and neighbours begged him to teach them his tricks. And so, a teacher was born.
But this was no ordinary teacher. This was a man who would go on to build the mightiest edtech empire the world had ever seen.

From Math Whiz to EdTech Mogul

It started small.

In the early 2000s, while working as an engineer, Raveendran found himself helping friends prepare for the Common Admission Test (CAT), India's toughest MBA entrance exam. He wasn't a tutor, just a friend breaking down complex problems in ways that made sense.

His "students" started acing the exam.

Word spread.
Soon, it wasn't just friends—it was friends of friends. And then complete strangers.

Raveendran wasn't just teaching—he was performing. His methods were electrifying, his explanations gripping. In an era where most coaching classes relied on dry textbooks and strict discipline, Raveendran made learning feel like a show.

Students weren't forced to attend—they wanted to be there.

And so, the classrooms grew. From small groups in apartments to packed auditoriums in metro cities. At one point, demand was so high that he started conducting sessions in stadiums. Thousands of students would gather just to hear him speak.

In the pre-YouTube, pre-digital India, this was unheard of.

Raveendran had stumbled upon a truth that traditional educators had ignored: students don't hate learning—they hate bad teaching.

Raveendran didn't just teach. He conquered. Soon, his offline classes became legendary. Then came the big idea: why stop at classrooms? Why not take this magic to every student, everywhere?

He knew then that this was his true purpose. He quit his engineering job. Teaching would no longer be a side hustle—it would be his life's work.

The Secret Sauce: What Made Byju's So Irresistible?

By 2011, India was changing.

Smartphones were entering middle-class households. The internet was no longer a luxury—it was a necessity.

Raveendran saw an opportunity. If he could teach thousands in stadiums, what if he could teach millions through a screen?

Raveendran turned his brand into a company—Think & Learn Private Limited. His live classes were a hit. 

News spread.
Then came the big break.

In 2013, he met Ranjan Pai and Mohandas Pai of Aarin Capital. They saw potential. They saw a teacher who could build an empire. They wrote the first cheque. For a 26% stake. This was Series A funding.

And, Byju's – The Learning App was born in 2015.

Byju Raveendran became the Founder & CEO, and Divya Gokulnath, his wife, the Co-Founder of Byju’s.

It wasn't just another online course. It was gamified learning before the world had a name for it.

Raveendran and his team spent years creating high-quality video lessons that made math and science feel like an adventure. Animations, storytelling, real-life applications—every concept was designed to be addictive, engaging, and unforgettable.

And it worked.

Students, parents, even teachers—everyone fell in love with Byju's. The app wasn't just another edtech product—it was a phenomenon.

Investor's Goldmine

And investors took notice. They smelled success. And soon, the money started pouring in. 

The numbers got bigger. The dreams got bolder.

More investors jumped on the bandwagon.
Peak XV (earlier Sequoia Capital). Tiger Global. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. 

You name it. They invested in it.

Aarin Capital backed the $25 million Series B. 

In 2016, they raised a massive $145 million. It quickly climbed the valuation charts. The company received investment from Sequoia, Innoven Capital, Sofina Group, Times Internet, and the International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank Group. 

That same year, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's funding arm – the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative – led a $50 million round.

This boosted Byju’s valuation to $462 million. Byju's raised another round of $70 million in 2017. In the same year, Verlininvest, a family office in Brussels, joined Byju's board. 

The company's valuation hit $600 million.

Why did the world's biggest investors bet on Byju's?

For one, the numbers were staggering.

• India had 260 million school-going students—the largest in the world.
• Middle-class parents were obsessed with education and willing to spend a fortune on coaching classes.
• Smartphone penetration was skyrocketing, making digital learning inevitable.

But it wasn't just market potential. It was Raveendran himself.

Investors weren't just backing an app—they were backing a visionary.

Raveendran wasn't a businessman in a suit; he was a teacher with an unstoppable drive. He had built Byju's from scratch, without investors, without marketing budgets—just through sheer passion.

This wasn't a company that was selling education. This was a company that was revolutionising it.

And then, Byju's made the ultimate power move. It became a marketing machine.

Shah Rukh Khan and the IPL Gamble

Education had always been marketed as serious, traditional, and dull. Byju's changed that.

It brought Shah Rukh Khan—the biggest name in Bollywood—as its brand ambassador. Every TV, every billboard, every YouTube ad had the King of Bollywood telling parents:

"If you want your child to succeed, choose Byju's."

And so, the empire grew. Ads featuring Shah Rukh Khan flashed across screens. Mohanlal spoke about it in Kerala.

And then, in a jaw-dropping sponsorship move, Byju's became the official sponsor of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Cricket and education? Unlikely pair.

But Raveendran knew something investors didn't.

• Every Indian household watches the IPL.
• Every Indian parent wants the best for their child.

Byju's wasn't just marketing itself as a brand—it was positioning itself as a household necessity.

Billboards, YouTube, cricket sponsorships—Byjus was everywhere.

Byju's Vision for the Future of Education

Byju's didn't stop there. In the midst of its rapid rise, it formed strategic partnerships that solidified its presence.

Byju's joined hands with Disney to create engaging educational content for children. This partnership helped Byju's tap into a wider audience, making learning even more fun and interactive.

Then, in 2018, the company partnered with PVR to launch an in-cinema ad campaign. The collaboration was a game-changer.

Kings need castles. Byju's needed students. Millions of them.

It worked.
Byju's valuation skyrocketed,  making it the world's most valuable edtech company. A unicorn.

The company became an unstoppable machine. High salaries lured top talent. A workforce of 50,000 employees spread across India, the US, and the UAE. 

By 2019, it was the undisputed giant of Indian edtech. 

The Golden Years

Then came the pandemic. The best thing that could have happened to Byju's.

Schools shut down. Parents panicked. Online learning became a necessity overnight. Byju's was ready. 

The numbers were staggering - $1 billion raised between July 2019 and October 2020. $22 billion valuation by 2021. 

Investors earned as much as 7x returns.

The Price of Power

But even the mightiest empires have cracks. Byju's had one: its sales strategy.

It was aggressive. Too aggressive.

Sales executives pushed loans on unsuspecting parents. Tablets preloaded with courses were sold on EMI. Many families didn't even realise they had taken loans until the payments started piling up. Complaints grew. Whispers of unethical practices turned into full-blown outrage.

The money kept coming, but the foundation was beginning to shake.

From Glory to Grit

When you reach the top, the only way forward is either expansion or downfall.

Byju's chose expansion. But it was too much, too fast.

• It acquired Aakash Educational Services—a behemoth in medical and engineering coaching for $1 billion.
• It acquired WhiteHat Jr.—a startup promising to make kids coding prodigies, for $300 million.
• It acquired Toppr, Osmo, Great Learning—anything and everything related to education, spending over $2 billion.

Billions were spent.
Seventeen acquisitions in five years. Three and a half companies were bought every year.

The empire was growing. At first, it seemed like a masterstroke.

Read the blog on BYJU's scammy past and all its acquisitions

Then, the world changed.

Behind the scenes, chaos was brewing.

🚨 The company was burning cash at an alarming rate.
🚨 WhiteHat Jr. faced backlash for aggressive marketing tactics.
🚨 Parents started complaining about being misled into expensive subscriptions.

The golden empire started crumbling from within. The growth, once unstoppable, had turned into a ticking time bomb. But the real question was: Could Byju's vision of revolutionising education survive this storm?

The Meltdown: From Titan to Trouble

COVID ended. Schools reopened. Parents stopped paying for online learning. 

And suddenly, Byju's found itself drowning in debt. What once seemed like unstoppable growth turned into financial chaos.

The first tremor came in 2022. Byju's auditor refused to sign off on the company's FY22 financials. 
The reason? Revenue was being recorded before payments were even made. Dodgy accounting practices. Fake numbers.

Auditors found discrepancies in Byju’s revenue reports. The company was allegedly inflating numbers, making its financial health seem better than it was.
Deloitte, the auditing giant, resigned. 

Byju's lost its Indian cricket sponsorship, too.

Suddenly, everyone was asking the same question: Had Byju's been a house of cards all along?

Investors were furious.

Then came the layoffs.
2,500 employees were let go. Then another 1,000. Then another 1,500.

Yet, while people lost their jobs, Byju’s was spending millions on branding.

$40 million for FIFA World Cup 2022 sponsorship. $5-7 million per year for Lionel Messi to endorse its non-profit arm, Education For All.

People were outraged. The cracks were now visible to all.

Investors, once eager to pour money, now wanted answers. Lenders came knocking. Lawsuits followed. Employees were fired in waves. The dream that had once seemed unstoppable was now under siege.

And Raveendran?
For the first time, he panicked.

The Man Who Bets Everything

2023 arrived, and the mighty empire began to crumble.

Parents demanded refunds. Protests erupted. The Indian Parliament debated Byju's business practices. 

Investors lost faith.

 

Meanwhile, its acquisitions turned into liabilities. 

WhiteHat Jr., bought for $300 million, became a disaster. The coding boom fizzled out. The company became a sinking ship. Aakash, the crown jewel, began pulling away. Great Learning was looking for an exit. Byju’s foreign creditors were demanding loan repayments.

The king was losing his empire.
Byju Raveendran was no longer the confident teacher filling stadiums. He was a CEO scrambling to save his dream.

💰 He sold his private assets.
🏡 He mortgaged his home.
🏦 He put his personal wealth into the company.

But desperation doesn't inspire confidence. Investors pulled back. The once-mighty Byju's lost its magic.

He went from being a billionaire to being in debt. From sitting on international panels as a visionary leader to sitting across the table from lawyers and creditors.

The man who once taught millions how to solve problems was now facing a problem even he couldn’t solve.

The End of an Empire

By 2024, Byju’s had become a shadow of its former self. It scaled down 90% of its workforce. Shut down nearly half of its 250+ tuition centres. Investors lost over $500 million.

Messi was paid only for the first year. 

Raveendran, once the golden boy of Indian startups, was now a man surrounded by lawsuits, debts, and angry employees. But he refused to surrender.

In an email to employees in August 2024, he promised a turnaround. A new Byju's 3.0—an AI-powered, hyper-personalised education model. Investors were “ready to back” his vision, he claimed.
But only a few believed him.

And now, the question looms:

Is this the end?

Byju's still has millions of users. It still has brand recognition.

But can Raveendran, the man who built an empire from nothing, bring it back from the brink?

Empires rise. Empires fall. But can this king reclaim his throne? 

Or will Byju's be remembered as a cautionary tale—a company that flew too close to the sun?

An Icarus Paradox.

The world watches as the story unfolds.

Only time will tell.