Amidst financial challenges, Byju’s, a leading edtech company, has seen its senior leadership stand firmly behind CEO and founder Byju Raveendran. In a united front, the entire leadership team, including India head Arjun Mohan and CFO Nitin Golani, expressed unwavering confidence in Raveendran’s leadership.
“Certain investors, seeing the crisis we faced, saw it as an opportunity to conspire and demand the stepping down of our founder as the group CEO of Byju’s,” the company told employees in the note.
“We are pained to see this action from a few of the investors who should have supported us in our fight at these challenging times instead of directly speaking to the media. The founders are the largest investors and the greatest fighters for Byju’s,” it added.
This show of support comes in response to a notice from a consortium of key shareholders calling for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to address ongoing issues, including a proposed change of management. Byju’s internal communication also highlighted that certain investors are allegedly conspiring against the company and seeking Raveendran’s removal.
Despite facing a liquidity crisis and pending January salaries, Byju’s assured its employees that a proposed $200 million rights issue of shares has received commitments exceeding 100% of the proposed amount within just three days of its launch. The success of this rights issue is expected to provide operational capital from March onwards and pave the way for the company’s recovery.
Addressing investor demands for management changes, Byju’s clarified that shareholders do not have the voting rights to alter the CEO or management. The company reiterated its commitment to proceed with the rights issue and has received positive responses from multiple investors.
“Under these unfortunate circumstances, we would emphasise that the shareholder’s agreement does not give them the right to vote on a CEO or management change,” the statement said.
Byju’s remains focused on achieving operational profitability and addressing old liabilities while securing short-term growth. The success of the rights issue is seen as pivotal in overcoming current challenges and steering the company towards recovery.
