Byju Raveendran, the cofounder of the beleaguered edtech behemoth Byju’s, has told the workers that he has been able to raise some money somehow making some partial salary payments possible. In a message sent out to staff members on Saturday, Raveendran apologised for salary payment delays and hardships. The email was sent when the company began to show signs of cash flow trouble.
While the company’s operating expenses settled some part-payments into accounts for April and the month of May, full payment of salaries for February and March have not as yet been settled. That’s my fault, he answered modestly, “I owe you an apology. You’ve given your all, and still haven’t seen any compensation for your efforts, which just isn’t right, and for that, I apologize wholeheartedly.”
Byju’s Legal Turmoil
In the last few months, particularly, the situation has been quite bad for the firm called Chair in Byju’s. Raveendran spoke of the period as, “A perfect storm Legal fight, uncertainty over funding, and problems no one anticipated.” As the company has gone to insolvency and now is in the appeal battling, there is also some ongoing litigation other than the appeal surrounding that occurrence.
Raveendran tackled one of the major legal concerns by explaining, “A case has been filed by US-based lenders in a very flimsy manner, putting a claim on our India assets. But they have no entitlement to these assets, as per the agreement we have signed with them.” Moreover, he also pointed out that Byju’s has lost the access to their bank accounts which makes it impossible to cope with the payment lag.
Employees further state that over the payment of their due remuneration which makes them worried for obvious reasons, the company’s monetary woes are perhaps one too many. Employees who filed their income tax returns this year attempted to do so with the shock that the company had not paid the income tax it had previously deducted at source (TDS) on behalf of its employees to the relevant authorities since July 2022, in spite of pay slips indicating otherwise.
In the US and also in India, Byju’s has been sued by Glas Trust concerning the $1.2 billion loan. As of this time, the lenders have also taken issue with the company’s appraisal as regards the recent Rs 158 crore payment to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) calling it “tainted.” One problem is more on top of this. It has been reported that due to non-payment of dues, Amazon Web Services and Vodafone Idea have disabled services, while Byju’s insists its app and website are up and running.
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