The test-prep company has just survived a scare in January amid talks of fundraising and an IPO. Is Byju’s overdependence hurting its only profit-making subsidiary?
Last year, towards the end of June, Byju Raveendran reached out to shareholders in Aakash Educational Services Ltd. It was around the time they were supposed to receive the final tranche of payment for their stake in the test-prep company that edtech giant Byju’s acquired in 2021 for $1 billion in cash and stock. Everyone from the Chaudhry family (the promoters of AESL) to private equity firm Blackstone was waiting for the money to be wired. Except Byju’s didn’t have any.
“Byju said there was a liquidity problem,” says a person in the know, asking not to be named. “The …
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