From being India's most famous and valuable e-tech company at one point of time to now facing bankruptcy, the story of the Byju's app is for everyone to know. Before we get to its shocking demise, let's take a look at how it all began.

Baiju Raveendran came from a very small background. He was born in a small village in Kerala to parents who were teachers. A footballer and cricketer at school, Raveendran was self-taught from an early age and developed his own distinct learning methods to better understand concepts. Born in a small village, Baiju studied in a Malayalam medium school. Baiju had studied mathematics and science on his own and in those days when there was not much encouragement to speak or learn English from school, Baiju learned to speak English by listening to cricket commentary.

He says that learning through such self-developed methods is very useful in business later. By 2014, he was conducting classes in stadiums for about 20,000 children. Byju's launched the app in 2015 and by 2022, 150 million learners have joined the app. Byju's has had a very successful journey for 10 years.

In 2007, Byju Raveendran was working for the UK-based Pan Ocean Shipping Company. Many of Baiju's friends who worked with him were preparing for the CAT exam along with their work. They had sought the help of Baiju, who knew many tips to pass the exam. Baiju had written the CAT exam with his friends. He scored 100%. With this, Baiju realised the respite he could get as an educator and started taking classes on holidays without enrolling for an MBA. That's how the classes start.

He says that the class started for 35 of his friends, which later turned into a class of about 1200 people. Later, classes began to be held in large stadiums for a large number of students. Baiju took special care of such a child. The boy's name was Divya Gopinath. She was preparing for her GRE after completing her engineering. Impressed by Divya's abilities, Baiju offered Divya a teacher's position and asked her to stay back in India. Divya left her US dreams and stayed back in India. They married in 2009 and two years later announced Divya as a co-founder. In 2011, the company was officially registered as Think and Learn and included classes for children from LKG to 12th grade. Two years later, Byju's has found its biggest investor. Dr. Ranjan Pai, the founder of Manipal Global, and Mohandas Pai, the chairman of Manipal Global, bought 26% of Think and Learn.

After seeing the videos of many children saying that it was Baiju Raveendran's classes that helped them get into big colleges like IAM, they met and spoke to Baiju Raveendran directly and decided to invest in his firm.

In 2015, BYJU'S launched online classes along with offline classes and launched its flagship app BYJU'S. For the first time in India, Byju's is giving children the option to stream their tuition classes on phones and computers. This was a major revolution. Byju's app was downloaded by more than 20 lakh children in 90 days. Due to this huge success, the company was able to raise $75 million in a Series C funding round in 2016. Byju's also raised $50 million from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative in a Series D funding round that same year. The company had a very successful journey from 2015 to 2021, during which it attracted many investors and raised millions of dollars. Byju's is the first unicorn edtech company in India, which is worth $1 billion. By the time the pandemic hit, Byju's had become a decacon company, which is worth $10 billion. Two years later, Byju's was valued at $22 billion.

The growth of Byju's was also reflected in their marketing. Advertising with people like Shah Rukh Khan and Messi. Byju's has also become the main sponsor of the Indian cricket team. It is also the official sponsor of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

These funds were used by Byju's not only for marketing but also for buying many ed-tech companies in India and abroad. Some of these companies were later sold. They started raising loans along with investments and in November 2021, they received $12 billion at a very low interest rate. They had to pay 0.5% interest and 0.2% Libor for this loan. It was a very small amount. But later this loan affected the very existence of Byju's.

During this period of high growth, some problems in Byju's also started to come to the fore. The company did not have a CFO from December 2021 to April 2023. Baiju explained that there are vice-presidents who handle financial matters. Similarly, parents across the country have come out against Byju's. It was alleged that Byju's was forcibly procuring unnecessary courses and not helping in achieving the guaranteed learning goals. The workers also held a protest. The workers complained that they could not bear the pressure to achieve targets that could never be achieved. But Baiju Raveendran called it aggressive selling. Baiju had said that they have made mistakes and are ready to correct them and that his goal is to help the children in the most effective way than growing the business.

After children returned to schools post-2022, it was expected that eight companies would experience significant growth. However, the reality unfolded differently. Baiju Ravindran had assured his employees that 2022 would be a year of substantial growth. Instead, following this promise came news of laying off 2,500 workers. When the financial figures for the 2022 fiscal year were released, Baiju’s company reported a loss of 4,500 crore rupees, which was much higher than the previous year. Although Baiju claimed a revenue of 10,000 crore rupees in 2022, the actual numbers showed revenue of around 3,500 crore rupees. Adding to these troubles, in April 2023, the Enforcement Directorate conducted a raid on Baiju’s Bangalore office and filed a case accusing him of illegally handling a large amount of foreign currency. Baiju denied all these allegations. Around the same time, cases were also filed against Baiju in the United States. Lenders accused him of not providing the promised returns and misusing their funds, allegations which Baiju also denied. Initially, Baiju filed cases against his lenders, but after failing to win, he began negotiating for a compromise. Meanwhile, Baiju’s auditors resigned from the company, citing delays in filing returns, and three board members also stepped down, leaving only three members on the board: Baiju Ravindran, his wife Divya, and Baiju’s brother Riju Ravindran. These successive issues severely impacted Baiju’s company valuation. A company valued at 22 billion dollars in 2021 had plummeted to just 1 billion dollars by January 2024. Baiju’s problems continue to persist. When Oppo withdrew from sponsoring the Indian cricket team in 2018, Baiju took over the sponsorship. However, after 2022, as part of cost-cutting measures, Baiju tried to withdraw from this sponsorship, leading to the BCCI filing a case against him. While it’s not accurate to say Baiju has completely collapsed, it is clear that financial difficulties are tightening their grip on him.