Byju's: $22 Billion to 'Worth Zero'

Byju's, the Indian edtech company that became India's biggest startup in 2022 with a $22 billion valuation, rode a pandemic-era surge into an acquisition spree of more than two dozen companies. When venture funding dried up in 2022, the expansion collapsed: auditor Deloitte resigned, three major investors left the board, and U.S. lenders pushed the company into insolvency over a $1 billion loan. In October 2024, founder Byju Raveendran told reporters by video from Dubai that the company was 'worth zero,' saying 'we overestimated potential growth — it was a little too much, too soon.'

The lesson: A fortune built on borrowed money and other people's confidence is rented — when the funding stops, a $22 billion empire can reprice to zero.

Source: original reporting · How we source stories