The founder of Byju’s, Byju Raveendran, reportedly raised $12 million using his own home and family members’ assets as collateral in an attempt to pay employee salaries amidst a difficult financial time for the business.
The collateral consists of one under-construction villa at Epsilon, an affluent gated community in Bengaluru, South India, and two family-owned properties in Bengaluru. The borrowed money was used on Monday to pay the salaries of almost 15,000 workers at Think & Learn Pvt., the parent business of Byju’s.
The founder of Byju’s, who is struggling financially, has taken a number of actions to help the business overcome its present difficulties. Byju’s, formerly India’s most valuable software startup, is selling its children’s digital reading platform for almost $400 million, with its headquarters located in the United States. It is also entangled in a lawsuit with creditors over a $1.2 billion term loan that has interest payments that are past due.
Raveendran, who was formerly estimated to be worth close to $5 billion, has apparently racked up personal debt totaling over $400 million, for which he has pledged all of his parent company shares.
Byju’s disclosed in its last financial report that Think & Learn’s losses had decreased somewhat as a result of the pandemic’s increased activity. The startup is presently waiting on the results of an Indian federal agency’s probe into its foreign fundraising. As per a recent release, the corporation expects any penalties that may arise to be insignificant.
