Byju’s CEO raises personal loan to partly pay employees' salaries

Byju Raveendran, the founder and CEO of Think and Learn, which owns the crisis-ridden edtech firm Byju’s, has raised a personal loan to credit partial salaries of his employees for the month of March 2024.

The partial salaries for March were credited in the account of employees on April 20, and the total amount that Raveendran managed to clear is reported to be around Rs 25-30 crore.

The amount received by each staff member varies from 50 to 100 per cent of their monthly wages, with teachers and non-teaching staff in the lower salary bracket being given their full month’s wages.

Sources said that Raveendran had to settle for a personal loan to pay his staff for the month of March mainly because certain foreign investors continue to block the rights issue amount that he had hoped to utilise for the purpose.

Byju’s were in the process of raising $200 million through the rights issue with the intention of spending it on administrative and operational expenses including staff wages. However, four investors — General Atlantic, Sofina, Peak XV and Prosus — appealed to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) saying the rights issue could alter the company’s shareholding pattern, according to a PTI report. Several other shareholders supported the investors’ plea, which is slated to come up for hearing in court on April 23.