The tech giant is teetering on the precipice after investors voted to out its CEO last month
In 2018, Byju Raveendran was the toast of India's start-up world as his eponymous edtech company, Byju's, was crowned a unicorn.
Once India's leading privately-held company valued at $22bn, it is now regarded by some as a cautionary tale for domestic start-ups, as investment company BlackRock recently slashed its valuation to $1bn. On 23 February, a majority of shareholders in Byju's parent company Think & Learn voted to remove Mr Raveendran as CEO during an extraordinary general meeting, citing allegations of "Mismanagement and failures."
Byju's, established in 2011 as an online tutoring firm, initially focused on classes for schoolchildren and competitive exam preparation in India.
The current standoff between Byju's and its investors stems from the company's efforts to address a cash crunch by proposing a rights issue, seeking to raise up to $200m - an invitation to existing shareholders to purchase additional new shares in the company.
Ahead of the EGM, Mr Raveendran said the issue was fully subscribed and the company would appoint a third party agency to monitor how these funds are used.
Four Byju's investors filed a petition with the National Company Law Tribunal, a quasi-judicial authority overseeing corporate disputes, seeking to block the rights issue.
In a Florida court, lenders accused the company of siphoning $533m into an obscure hedge fund in the US. But the firm denied the allegation, saying "An offshore subsidiary remains the beneficiary of the money" which it has invested in "High security fixed income instruments" with a multi-hundred billion dollar fund in the US. Camshaft, a wealth manager who had managed the funds, told the court that the money was transferred to a 100% subsidiary of Byju's.
A lead sponsor of the Indian cricket team till 2023, Byju's is in arbitration with the Board of Control for Cricket in India after being sued for allegedly failing to fulfil its sponsorship obligations and not paying dues of 1.58bn rupees.
The company's biggest challenge would be to shore up funds, says Shriram Subramanian, who heads an independent corporate governance research and advisory firm.
A "Reasonable, stable outcome" for the company is also important for India's start-up ecosystem, he adds.