Byju Raveendran is an Indian entrepreneur. He is the founder of Byju’s Learning App. Byju’s is the first startup in Asia to be funded by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife’s foundation, The Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Byju Raveendran was born in 1980 (age 43 years; as of 2023) in Azhikode, Kerala. He received his primary education from a local school in Azhikode, Kerala. He did B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from a government engineering college in Kannur, Kerala.
Byju has been interested in sports since childhood. Although his parents were teachers, they always stressed the importance of sports and encouraged him to try different sports. During his school and college days, he used to play football, cricket, table tennis and badminton.
Despite being so good at sports, Byju never wanted to make a career in sports. He had decided to make his career in the field of engineering or medical. He thought in his mind that if he chose medicine, he would never get time to play, so he chose to become an engineer.
Physical Appearance
Height (Approx): 5′ 8″
Weight (Approx): 70 kg
Eye colour: brown
Hair Color: Black
family and wife
Byju Raveendran belongs to a Malayali family. His father, Raveendran, is a retired physics teacher. His mother Shobhanavalli is a retired mathematics teacher. He has a younger brother Riju. He is married to Divya Gokulnath. He met Divya when he taught classes. She was his student and they fell in love and got married. They have a son, Nish.
Byju Raveendran with his father Raveendran
Byju Raveendran with his wife Divya Gokulnath and their son Nish
livelihood
When Byju completed his college studies, he got a job as a service engineer in a multi-national shipping firm. Once, he was staying with his friends in Bangalore during holidays. His friends were preparing for CAT examinations. Byju was a bright student and his friends asked him for help and guidance; Since Byju was very good in mathematics. Byju helped him and for fun he also took the exam with him. Byju was surprised when he scored 100 percent marks in the exam. He couldn’t believe the result, so, he attempted the exam once again to see if he had accidentally scored such good marks, but, he again scored 100 percent.
His friend, whom he helped prepare for the CAT exam, also passed the exam with good marks. He advised Byju that he should teach students aspiring for competitive examinations. He agreed and his journey as an entrepreneur began. He started teaching on the terrace of his friend’s house. Initially, he taught only MBA aspirants, and he would guide them and inform them about tips and tricks that helped them save time while attempting mathematics questions. Eventually, he quit his job, and he started teaching more courses. He used to teach the students for free for a week and after that if they liked his teaching style then he started charging them.
As the number of students increased, he moved his classes from his friend’s rooftop to a classroom and eventually to an auditorium. His popularity increased day by day and, there was a time when he was taking classes of around 20,000 students in different states like Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai and Pune. Due to the increasing number of students, he began recording his lectures in 2009 and made them available to students in 45 cities.
Byju Raveendran during a lecture
In 2010, some students who had just graduated from IIM met Byju and proposed the idea of taking his classes to a new domain. He decided to conduct BYJU’s classes online and offer them to millions of students. He created a company, think and learn. Its objective was to prepare educational material for students. Byju Raveendran said that the company was based on this ideology-
To perform well in competitive examinations, students must have concept-clarity, which can be provided to a person only during school education.
They created a mobile application and a website in 2011 to help everyone gain access to the educational content offered by Byju’s. They named the application- BYJU’S – The Learning App. The app gained popularity, and parents and students quickly adopted the application because it was a very new idea and concept. Byju’s had many free videos on every topic, and if one wants to watch all the videos on a particular topic, one has to subscribe to it. In 2005, there were over 5.5 million downloads of Android and iOS mobile applications and over 2.50 lakh annual subscriptions.
In September 2016, Mark Zuckerberg and his Priscilla Chan’s foundation – The Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, funded $50 million in Byju Raveendran’s company. Byju’s became the first startup in Asia to be funded by the Chan-Zuckerberg initiative. In July 2019, “Byju’s-The Learning App” became the official sponsor of the Indian cricket team’s jersey.
BYJU’S -Official sponsor of Indian cricket team jersey
controversies
NCPCR summons
Byju Raveendran was summoned by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on December 17, 2022, following complaints from parents and children. The allegations state that BYJU’S lured them into joining loan-based contracts for its educational programmes.
Irregularity in loan repayment
In March 2023, BYJU’S-linked lenders in the United States led by investment management firm Redwood accelerated repayment of Term Loan B (TLB). He alleged certain non-monetary and technical violations of the contract, which resulted in him taking control of Byju’s holding company Byju’s Alpha and appointing his own management team. The lenders claimed that Byju Alpha was set up only to receive TLB funds. Byju’s, along with its subsidiaries and acquisitions, is controlled by its parent company, Think & Learn Pvt. Ltd. Ltd. As reported by Bloomberg, the lenders accused Byju’s Alpha of defaulting on its loan payments and replaced Byju’s chief and Byju Raveendran’s younger brother Riju Raveendran with their representative Timothy R. Demanded to appoint Pohal. As a result, this action triggered a legal dispute between Edutech Group and its lenders in courts based in Delaware and New York.
ED raid
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at BYJU’s premises in Bengaluru on 29 April 2022; The search was conducted in response to complaints from various private individuals against the firm. According to the ED, they found irregularities in the foreign direct investment (FDI) received by the firm since 2011; According to the ED, the company received Rs 28,000 crore as FDI, of which it allegedly repatriated more than Rs 9,700 crore abroad. The agency also found that Byju had remitted Rs 9,754 crore (approximately) in the name of foreign direct investment to various foreign jurisdictions during the same period. The ED also claimed that founder and CEO Ravindran Byju never appeared before the agency despite receiving several summons from the agency. Following the ED raid, a Byju’s spokesperson described it as a “routine” inquiry and said,
We have been completely transparent with the authorities and we have provided them with all the information they have requested. We have full confidence in the integrity of our operations and are committed to maintaining the highest standards of compliance and ethics.
Accused of hiding 500 million dollars
On 19 May 2023, lenders to Byju’s Alpha alleged that Byju’s US arm had defaulted on their payments and transferred $500 million from the company. As a result, a hearing was initiated in the Delaware Chancery Court. The court issued an order prohibiting managers from making significant changes within the organization and scheduled a trial to determine who would gain control of the company. On June 5, 2023, Byju’s filed a complaint in the New York Supreme Court challenging the acceleration of loan payments. The company has refused to make any further payments to its lenders until the dispute over loan terms is resolved.
fact
- In 2017, “Byju’s the Learning App” was included in Harvard University as one of its case studies.
- As of July 2019, Byju’s – The Learning App had over 11 million downloads on the Play Store for Android and 35 million registered users.
- Byju Raveendran’s net worth increased to $6 billion in 2019.
See more: Anjali Tendulkar Wiki
Anjali Arora Wiki
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn