Byju’s promoters have sold shares worth millions of dollars

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Editor's note: As on 31 March 2016, Think & Learn Pvt. Ltd, the parent company of Byju’s, had three main promoters: Founder and CEO Byju Raveendran, his brother Riju Ravindran and Byju’s wife, Divya Gokulnath. Together, they held 1,274,738 (723,608, 341,620 and 209,510 shares, respectively) out of 1,385,946 shares.  Over the next five years, as the Bengaluru-based company’s valuation rose 28x, the founders, led by Riju Ravindran, liquidated 325,313 shares, more than 25% of their holding in March 2016, documents accessed from the website of India’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs show. People who spoke to The Morning Context, on the condition of anonymity, say that at a very conservative estimate, the promoters would have made over $100 million through this secondary sale of shares. Back-of-the-envelope calculations lead us to an amount in the $100-$250 million range. A secondary sale of shares in a private company is when a founder sells their shares to an existing investor or a third party to make money. These transactions are usually done with the blessing of investors in the company. In itself, a secondary sale of …