There’s no end to the troubles for Byju Raveendran. A day after the Enforcement Directorate sought a ‘look out’ circular issued against him over the alleged FEMA violations, four Byju’s investors on Friday moved the NCLT against him. According to news agency PTI, the group of investors have filed a plea in the NCLT’s Bengaluru bench. The plea, which has been filed on oppression and mismanagement, seeks the tribunal to declare the founder of edtech major ‘unfit’ to run the company.
The ‘oppression’ plea has also sought an appointment of brand-new board for Byju’s. The development comes on a day when the company is holding its Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) today. The meeting started around 9 am. However, it took around an hour to verify all the attendees. Reports say that several attempts were made to interrupt the EGM.
Once billed as India’s hottest edtech startup, Byju’s has been facing governance and other issues since last year. The investors have also sought a forensic audit of the company. The oppression plea has been signed by four investors – Peak XV, Sofina, GA and Prosus. These investors also have backing of from other shareholders such as Owl Ventures and Tiger.
The suit raised various concerns, such as financial mismanagement by the founders resulting in the loss of control over Aakash, defaulting on the TLB loan for Byju’s Alpha, and ongoing corporate governance issues, notably the failure to appoint a CFO and independent director. Additionally, there were allegations regarding the “oppressive nature” of the rights offer, regulatory non-compliance, lack of transparency, and intentional defaults in sharing information with stakeholders. Unauthorized corporate actions related to the acquisition of the Singaporean edtech company Northwest Education Pte. were also mentioned as a point of contention.