New Delhi:

Embattled edtech platform Byju’s has paid full salary for April to employees in all functions, except sales staff, even as the company faces a liquidity crisis.

According to IANS sources, the Edtech firm paid the full amount to employees on Friday after two months of partial payment.

Byju’s is yet to pay the remaining part of the salaries for February and March.

Salaries had earlier been delayed for both months, with only part of the payments being paid to employees later in the respective months.

As per the sources, the salaries were paid from revenue generated and debt raised by the founders earlier.

This comes after the Edtech firm rolled out a new policy linking sales employees’ salaries to the revenue they generate every week.

According to an internal company document, the new company policy is currently applicable to sales teams, including the Inside Sales (IS) and Byju’s Exam Prep (BEP) teams.

The new policy, which is applicable for four weeks till May 21, will ensure the disbursal of a percentage of the weekly revenue generated by sales staff, as per the document.

Last month, Byju’s began to lay off hundreds of employees amid a cash crunch. The company had said that they were in the final stages of a business restructuring exercise.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Embattled edtech platform Byju’s, which is finding it difficult to pay full salaries amid severe cash crunch, has now linked sales employees’ pay to weekly revenue generation.

The new company policy is currently applicable to sales teams, including the Inside Sales (IS) and Byju’s Exam Prep (BEP) teams, according to an internal company document, reported news agency IANS.

Byju’s did not immediately comment on the new policy.

Applicable for a period of four weeks till May 21, the new policy will ensure the disbursal of a percentage of the weekly revenue generated by sales staff, according to the document.

“Starting immediately, 50 per cent of the upfront weekly collection will be directly disbursed to our sales associates every week for the next four weeks,” read the email.

“For instance, if an associate successfully collects Rs 50,000 in revenue generated from orders between April 24th and April 30th, they will receive Rs 25,000 on May 1,” the document further said.

The base salaries for sales team associates will be suspended temporarily during the period till May 21.

“Since the base salary has been suspended, you will not receive any payout or salaries for the given period (when the associate fails to do any revenue in a given week),” the company said in the internal document.

Last month, the shareholders of the company approved the rights issue, paving the way for its parent company Think & Learn Private Limited to issue fresh shares and conclude the rights issue aimed at tackling the severe cash crunch.

The approval of the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) proposals cleared the hurdle to tackle unpaid salaries, regulatory dues and vendor payments.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Byju Raveendran’s net worth a year ago was Rs 17,545 crore ($2.1 billion) and he featured in several prestigious ‘globe’s richest’ lists. However, according to the recently released Forbes Billionaire Index 2024, Mr Raveendran’s net worth has fallen to zero.

This sharp decline comes in the wake of multiple crises that have rocked the once high-flying startup, marking a significant fall from grace for the poster child of India’s startup ecosystem.

Noting Byju’s fall from the list, Forbes said, “Only four people from last year’s list dropped off this time, including former edtech star Byju Raveendran, whose firm Byju’s was enveloped in multiple crises and its valuation was marked down by BlackRock to $1 billion, a fraction of its peak $22 billion valuation in 2022.”

Founded in 2011, Byju’s rapidly ascended to become India’s most valuable startup, boasting a peak valuation of $22 billion in 2022. Raveendran’s brainchild revolutionised the education sector with its innovative learning app, catering to students from primary school to MBA aspirants. However, recent financial disclosures and mounting controversies have dealt a severe blow to the company’s fortunes.

The company’s woes were laid bare when Byju’s posted its long-delayed results for the fiscal year ending March 2022, revealing a staggering net loss exceeding $1 billion. This dismal financial performance led to BlackRock, a major investor, slashing its valuation of Byju’s to a mere $1 billion, marking a precipitous decline from its peak valuation.

Byju Raveendran has faced intense criticism for the company’s declining fortunes. The company’s shareholders, including Prosus NV and Peak XV Partners, last month voted to oust Mr Raveendran as CEO, escalating a battle over the fate of the once high-flying online tutoring startup that is fighting to remain in business.

Byju’s foreign investment has also come under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate. Before the lookout circular against its founder, the ED issued showcause notices to Byju’s parent firm Think & Learn over alleged violations worth over Rs 9,362 crore under the Foreign Exchange Management Act.

One of India’s hottest tech companies, Byju’s, allegedly hid $533 million in an obscure three-year-old hedge fund that once said its principal place of business was an IHOP pancake restaurant in Miami, according to lenders trying to recover the cash.

Byju’s last year transferred more than half a billion dollars to Camshaft Capital Fund, the investment firm founded by William C. Morton when he was just 23 years old, some Byju’s lenders claim in a lawsuit. Morton’s fund received the money despite an apparent lack of formal training in investing, according to the lenders. What’s more, luxury cars – a 2023 Ferrari Roma, a 2020 Lamborghini Huracan EVO, and a 2014 Rolls-Royce Wraith – have been registered in Morton’s name since the transfer occurred, according to court papers.

The allegations are the latest twist in an increasingly public battle between Byju’s, an India-based education tech firm, and lenders who claim the $533 million is collateral for a $1.2 billion loan. The two sides have been trading accusations about the loan, with lenders claiming it is in default and Byju’s accusing lenders of predatory tactics.

“Byju’s has gone to great lengths to conceal the whereabouts of borrower’s $533 million for the admitted purpose of hindering and delaying” creditors, they argued in Miami-Dade County court filings.

Byju’s, once India’s most valuable startup, is trying to strike a deal with creditors and this week made a surprise proposal to buy back the loan within six months. To bankroll that repayment, it’s in talks to sell some of its overseas assets to private equity and strategic investors. In an emailed statement late Tuesday US time, Byju’s said it’s not a party to the Florida court proceedings and hasn’t been served with copies of the lawsuit.

Glas Trust, the agent for the creditors, hasn’t informed Camshaft about the lawsuit, the fund’s lawyers said. “Camshaft vigorously denies the statements made in Glas Trust Company’s” court filing, Camshaft lawyer David Massey said in an emailed statement.

IHOP Fund

Byju’s sent the money to Camshaft even though the hedge fund appears to cater to smaller clients. Camshaft accepts as little as $50,000 – “an extremely low threshold for a hedge fund,” lenders said in their court filing.

In a 2020 Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Camshaft listed its principal business address as 285 NW 42nd Ave. Far from a typical office, that building is currently home to an IHOP. The diner in Miami’s Little Havana district is surrounded by a drive-through car wash and a strip mall that hosts a massage parlor and a sandwich shop.

An employee on shift on a slow Tuesday afternoon served two families who sipped juice and munched on burgers while Blake Shelton’s “God’s Country” played in the restaurant. “A hedge fund? No,” the server, Ana, said with wide eyes.

“If I had somebody coming in every day, or regularly, I’d recognize them,” she said.

She said she’d never heard of Morton, Camshaft Capital Fund, or Byju’s and that the address had been home to the IHOP for decades. She’s worked there for 10 years and hasn’t noticed people doing anything that looked like a business deal.

Miles away from that IHOP, an entity linked to Camshaft listed a swanky oceanfront condo at the Porsche Design Tower in Sunny Isles Beach – where the likes of Lionel Messi own homes – as its business address, court papers show.

In an unrelated lawsuit filed by Camshaft in Miami in June, the hedge fund said its principal place of business is in the Virgin Islands.

Cash Fight

The missing cash has been at the heart of the lenders’ actions. The lenders’ agent, Glas Trust, won an early round in the fight by gaining control of the Byju’s unit that issued the debt. But by then, the cash had vanished. Byju’s was trying to protect the money from predatory lenders, a lawyer for Byju’s Alpha said during a court hearing in May. The company had a right to transfer the money under the loan agreement, the lawyer said.

Byju’s has claimed in court that the lenders are seeking to take over the entire ed-tech empire, which is led by its founder, Byju Raveendran. Byju’s has asked a Delaware judge to reject the default declared by Glas.

The company had been trying to strike a deal with creditors to restructure the facility, which itself is one of the biggest unrated term loan B offerings ever from a startup company.

Since the company was founded in 2015, Raveendran has attracted capital from some of the biggest investors in the tech world, including Mark Zuckerberg’s Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Silver Lake Management and Naspers Ltd. Byju’s was valued at more than $20 billion last year when it considered merging with a special-purpose acquisition company.

The lenders filed the lawsuit in order to trace the money and recover any excess management fees pay to Camshaft.

Camshaft had not yet filed a response to the lawsuit as of Tuesday afternoon in Miami.

The Miami lawsuit is Glas Trust Co. LLC V. Camshaft Capital Fund, LP, 2023-022640-CA-01, Miami-Dade County.