Byju Raveendran, co-founder of troubled edtech firm Byju’s, assured staff in a letter on Saturday that he had “managed to borrow some funds” and they would receive a small payment as part of their pending salaries by this weekend.
In an email sent to teachers, reviewed by FE, Raveendran acknowledged the long-standing delays in salary payments and issued an apology for the financial strain placed on the staff. While part-payments were reportedly made for April and May, the company is yet to disburse full payments for previous months, including February and March.
“I owe you an apology. You have given your best, yet we have not been able to compensate you for your work. This is not right, and for that, I am truly sorry,” he wrote in the email.
Raveendran described the past three months as “a perfect storm of legal battles, financial uncertainties, and challenges none of us ever expected”.
He revealed that Byju’s is currently navigating an insolvency process, which the company has challenged in court.
Addressing the legal hurdles, Raveendran wrote, “US-based lenders have filed a flimsy case, staking a claim on our India assets. But they have no entitlement to these assets as per the agreement we signed with them.” He added that the trust representing these lenders in India “has no legal standing” and does not represent the majority of the lenders.
Despite expressing confidence in winning the case, Raveendran admitted, “I no longer control the company’s bank accounts,” which has affected the company’s ability to resolve the payment delays promptly.
The founder emphasised the critical role of teachers in Byju’s mission, stating, “You are the backbone of Byju’s. Without you, there is no company. There are no students. There is no future.” A similar email had reportedly been sent in August, where Raveendran promised to clear July’s salary, but payment delays have continued as the company navigates the insolvency process.
Beyond salary delays, current and former employees have found themselves in for an unwelcome surprise while filing income tax returns (ITR) this year. Despite receiving pay slips indicating tax deductions, the company hasn’t remitted tax deducted at source (TDS) to the government since July 2022.
US-based Glas Trust has sued Byju’s for the recovery of a $1.2-billion loan in both the US and India. The consortium of lenders has also opposed the Rs 158 crore settlement reached between the edtech firm and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), alleging that the money paid by Raveendran’s brother, Riju Ravindran, was tainted. The apex court is yet to conclude on the matter.
In another setback, Amazon Web Services and Vodafone Idea have reportedly suspended their services to Byju’s over unpaid dues. While AWS was providing cloud services, Vodafone Idea was the sole mobile network service provider to the firm. This has allegedly led to frequent crashes of Byju’s mobile app and inaccessibility of its common contact number since early September. Byju’s, however, has denied these claims, stating that its app and website remain fully operational and that it has moved its databases to Google Cloud.