The Dutch investment firm, Prosus has marked down its 9.6% stake in Byju’s. The reason for this move is the significant decrease in value for equity investors. Prosus had put $500M into what was once India’s leading online education portal. The investments were made across several rounds starting in 2019.
Prosus’ portfolio includes many noteworthy Indian startups like Swiggy, Eruditius, PharmEasy, and Meesho. The Naspers-owned investment firm recognized a loss of $493M this year in its latest stock exchange filing in the Netherlands.
In January this year, Byju’s planned to raise $200M more from current shareholders through a rights issue dropping its valuation to $20M, a huge 99% decline from its highest valuation of $22B. With several legal issues still hanging over Byju’s has seen a valuation markdown from its early backers including Prosus for the past few years. Earlier this month, HSBC assigned zero value to the Prosus’ stake in the ed-tech firm.
The drowning valuation of Byju’s has also marked its founder, Byju Raveendran’s net worth to zero as per the Forbes Billionaire Index 2024. Along with its financial woes, Byju’s is experiencing a huge rejig at the top level. The previous month marked the resignation of Rajnish Kumar and T V Mohandas Pai, who joined the company last year as advisory council members. Ajay Goel, working as the firm’s chief financial officer also left in October 2023.
As of now, Byju Raveendran is looking into the company’s daily functioning. The firm is under huge financial stress currently with a number of regulatory issues still hanging over. The near future shows no sign of hope for the once fancied ed-tech giant.
