No Personal ED Probe, Working To Pay Salaries Since July: Byju Raveendran To Employees

Byju's Chief Executive Officer Byju Raveendran told employees on Wednesday the Enforcement Directorate was not probing him or his brother singularly, and the firm would pay salaries pending since July as soon as possible.

In a company-wide letter sent to employees, Raveendran said the matter of salaries had been delayed due to the insolvency dispute with the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

"We settled the case and were on the brink of regaining control of our finances after the NCLAT ruled in our favour. However, the foreign distress lenders have been litigating against us...which means the control of the company's accounts has not yet been restored to us," he wrote.

He added that the founders are unable to infuse more capital to pay salaries, which has been the case for a while.

Byju's parent, Think & Learn Pvt., has been depending solely on founders as the source of capital for the last two and a half years.

"Founders together have infused approximately Rs 7,500 crore in the company for various operational needs. As a matter of fact, of the Rs 3,976 crores disbursed as salaries to the team over the past two years, Rs 1600 crore was infused by Riju personally," Byju wrote, referencing his brother who is also a director.

He added that claims that suggest that the funds used to settle the BCCI matter are not "tainted".

"My brother, Riju, has taken full financial responsibility for settling INR 158 crores with the BCCI. The funds used to discharge this obligation were sourced entirely from his finances, which were accumulated through the sale of his shares in BYJU'S between May 2015 and January 2022," Byju wrote.

"Today, Riju is left with limited savings. He even had to raise money against our house to clear some liabilities," he added.

Byju wrote that the ED investigation against the company is restricted to procedural deficiencies under FEMA, such as delay in filing annual performance reports, related to investments from the delayed statutory audit. "Contrary to what some media articles may have alleged, ED has not commenced any investigation against Riju or me in any personal capacity either."

Byju added that he is not an economic fugitive, having travelled to India "10 times since March 2023 and spent 77 days in total".

He added that the company is ready to launch Byju's 3.0, which will be an AI-driven educational platform.

"I want to remind all of you that we are still the largest edtech platform globally with 15 crore students using our products and services every month. Despite the recent challenges faced, this organic user base has doubled over the last two years," he said.