In late April, Indian officials in plainclothes raided the Bengaluru offices of Byju's, seizing laptops. The authorities publicly linked the education technology startup with possible foreign exchange violations. The firm's eponymous founder and chief executive, Byju Raveendran, broke down in tears defending his company. Reports said that Raveendran had been in crisis mode for months.
#Byjus #ByjuRaveendran #ByjusCrisis
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#Byjus #ByjuRaveendran #ByjusCrisis
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NewsTranscript
00:00 In late April of this year, Indian officials in plain clothes raided the Bengaluru offices
00:06 of Baiju's seizing laptops.
00:09 The authorities publicly linked the education technology startup with possible foreign exchange
00:14 violations.
00:15 The firm's eponymous founder and chief executive, Baiju Ravindran, has apparently broken down
00:22 in tears defending his company.
00:24 Reports said that Ravindran had been in crisis mode for months.
00:27 Apart from the raid by India's financial crime-fighting agency, his once high-flying tutoring startup
00:34 failed to file its financial accounts on time.
00:37 Several US-based investors accused Baiju's of hiding half a billion dollars prompting
00:42 lawsuits.
00:43 On Tuesday, Process Envy, one of the company's earliest investors, said that it had given
00:48 up its board seat because of poor governance and disregard for directors' advice.
00:53 Baiju's and Ravindran have denied wrongdoing.Without easy access to global capital, companies are
00:59 now facing greater scrutiny over corporate governance, jeopardising India's quest to
01:04 pull even with the US and China as the tech capital of the world.
01:08 Ravindran's rise from a private tutor to the leader of a $22 billion company captivated
01:13 global investors, including Sequoia Capital, Blackstone Inc and Mark Zuckerberg's foundation.
01:19 During the pandemic, Ravindran cornered a majority of the ed-tech market in India.
01:24 But after classrooms reopened, concerns about Baiju's finances pricked at the firm's reputation.
01:30 Investors questioned why Ravindran delayed hiring a chief financial officer for years
01:34 and acquired more than a dozen companies across the world at breakneck speed.
01:39 Scores of employees have either left or been fired, board members have resigned, and many
01:44 teaching centres are nearly empty.
01:46 Ravindran supporters attribute missteps to the enthusiasm and naivety of an inexperienced
01:51 founder who grew too quickly.
01:54 Critics said that he acted recklessly by withholding information about finances and failing to
01:59 rigorously audit accounts.
02:01 In India's startup world, many see Baiju's as the highest-profile example of what happens
02:06 when a business scales one of the fastest-growing economies during boom but fails to plan for
02:11 a bust.
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