Edtech major Byju’s on Saturday held a shareholders meeting to allay their fears amid various concerns related to its debt obligations, resignations of three board members and financial auditor, said a report on Monday.
Byju's founder Byju Raveendran assured the shareholders that his personal investments remained intact in the firm.
Raveendran stated that all secondary shares had been reinvested back into the company at a valuation of $22 billion, reported CNBC TV18 citing sources on Monday. However, BlackRock marked down the value of its stake by 26% in Q1 2022 and 62% YoY, reducing the firm's estimated valuation to less than $8.4 billion.
He also acknowledged his past mistakes while assuring that his learnings outweigh any missteps.
The meeting was attended by approximately 75 shareholders and they were briefed by Raveendran and Chief Financial Officer Ajay Goel.
Business Standard reported on Monday that at the meeting, Raveendran highlighted his personal investments in the company, which include $400 million in the parent company, $250 million for the Aakash acquisition, and an additional $250 million through pledged secondary shares from the last funding round.
Raveendran informed the shareholders that discussions had been underway for several weeks regarding the reconstitution of the board, aiming to strengthen processes and align with the company's ambitions. Most of the business verticals are also performing well despite the challenges.
“Byju’s not my work, it’s my life,” Raveendran reportedly told shareholders at the meeting.
Last week, Byju's had to face dual blows in the form of exit of Deloitte as auditor and resignations of three board members.
Board members representing Peak XV Partners, earlier known as Sequoia Capital India, Prosus and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative stepped down from Byju's board on Friday.
During the meeting, the resigning board members were present and shared their reasons for resigning, confirming their decisions.
The departing board members assured shareholders of their commitment to support the company during the transition period and expressed that the delays and complications in results were caused by the auditor.
Byju's auditor Deloitte on Thursday said that it was severing ties with edtech start-up over its long-delayed financial statements for the year ended March 2022.
Peak XV said it would support the company "to strengthen business processes and internal control mechanisms".
Additionally, Ajay Goel, the Group CFO, outlined the timeline for financial results. Sources told Reuters that Goel committed to finalising the audit for FY22 by the end of September and the FY23 audit by the end of December. The reported added that Goel informed shareholders that the audit for most subsidiaries for FY22 had already been completed.