Dutch fund values Byju’s at $5 billion, down 75% since Oct

NEW DELHI: As it battles a series of crises, edtech startup Byju’s continues to see an erosion in its valuation. Within barely a span of a month, its investors Prosus and BlackRock have marked down its valuation.

In the latest markdown by Prosus, which has invested $536 million in the startup since 2018, Byju’s valuation has dropped to $5. 1 billion. That’s less than a fourth of its valuation of $22 billion at which it had raised some $250 million from investors in October 2022.

In its FY23 annual report released on Tuesday, Prosus has pegged the fair value of its 9. 6% stake in Byju’s at $493 million as of March 31, 2023. As of September 2022, the fair value of its stake in Byju’s was pegged at $578 million. Last month, filings made by BlackRock hadshowed that the firm, a minority investor in Byju’s, had slashed the valuation of the startup to about $8. 4 billion as of March 2023, a steep fall of about 62% from $22 billion. Prior to that, BlackRock had cut the company’s valuation by almost half to $11. 5 billion.

“The group lost significant influence during the current year due to loss of board representation,” Prosus said. The developmentcomes shortly after Russell Andrew Dreisenstock of Prosus resigned from the board of Byju’s along with Peak XV Partners’ G V Ravishankar and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s Vivian Wu.

Byju’s auditor Deloitte also resigned last week, citing a lack of communication by the company on the status of “audit readiness” of its FY22 results. Byju’s had filed its FY21 results after a delay of 18 months and posted losses of over Rs 4,500 crore compared to Rs 262 crore a year ago.

In a meeting with shareholders held over the weekend, founder Byju Raveendran, while acknowledging the company’s past mistakes, assured shareholders that his “learnings far outweigh any missteps”. The startup, which is engaged in a tussle with its term loan lenders, let go of at least 3,500 employees since October.