NEW DELHI, April 29 (Reuters) – India’s financial
crime-fighting agency said on Saturday it had raided three
premises linked to education platform Byju’s and its billionaire
CEO Byju Raveendran over suspected breaches of the country’s
foreign exchange laws.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said in a statement it had
seized various documents and digital data during the search, and
had issued summons for the CEO, but he did not appear.
Byju’s is one of India’s biggest startups, once valued at
$22 billion. It has attracted global investors such as General
Atlantic, BlackRock and Sequoia Capital, which have invested in
the company over the years.
The searches under alleged foreign exchange law violations
revealed that Think and Learn Private Limited, Byju’s parent
firm, had received foreign direct investment of nearly 280
billion rupees ($3.43 billion) during the period from 2011 to
2023, ED said.
Byju’s legal spokesperson said the visit by ED officials
to one of the company’s offices in Bengaluru was related to a
routine inquiry under foreign exchange laws.
“We will continue to work closely with the authorities
to ensure that they have all the information they need, and we
are confident that this matter will be resolved in a timely and
satisfactory manner,” the spokesperson said.
The searches come at a time when Indian startups have
struggled to raise funds and been questioned by investors over
their high valuations.
The platform saw its usage swell during the pandemic, but
announced the layoff of 2,500 of its 50,000 employees as
educational institutions resumed in-person classes. The company
reported a loss of 45.64 billion rupees ($558.49 million) in May
for fiscal 2021.
Byju’s spent $2.5 billion in fiscal year ended March 2022 to
acquire companies such as Aakash, U.S.-based Epic, kids’ coding
platform Tynker, professional education firm Great Learning and
exam perpetration platform Toppr.
New York-based investment firm BlackRock in a private
assessment last month slashed its valuation of Byju’s by almost
half to $11.15 billion.
The statement issued by the agency said the company also
remitted 97.5 billion rupees to various foreign jurisdictions
between 2011 and 2023 in the name of overseas direct
investments.
ED said Think and Learn had not prepared its financial
statements since the financial year 2020-21, nor had its
accounts been audited.
“We have nothing but the utmost confidence in the integrity
of our operations,” the spokesperson added.
($1 = 81.7200 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Bharat Govind Gautam in Bengaluru, Sarita
Chaganti Singh and Aditya Kalra in New Delhi, M. Sriram in
Mumbai; Editing by Lincoln Feast and William Mallard)
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