Government's Rejigged Startup Advisory Body Excludes Byju Raveendran, ZestMoney Co-Founder

Byju's eponymous founder, Byju Raveendran, ZestMoney's Lizzie Chapman and Ola's Bhavish Aggarwal are among the key names that have not been nominated again for a spot on the government's National Startup Advisory Council.

The government has nominated non-official members on the body "representing various stakeholders such as founders of successful startups, veterans who have grown and scaled companies in India, and persons capable of representing the interests of investors into startups," among others, according to a notice on Monday.

This comes after the completion of the first two-year term of the body. Apart from Raveendran, Chapman and Aggarwal, other notable names that have not been nominated again to the council include Rivigo's Deepak Garg, Zoho Corp.'s Sridhar Vembu, Infosys Ltd. co-founder and Axilor Ventures Chairman Kris Gopalakrishnan, Aarin Capital's Mohandas Pai and Kalaari Capital's Vani Kola.

However, among the notable additions to the nominations are top lawyer Nishith Desai, CarDekho's Amit Jain, Invest India head Nivruti Rai and Zerodha CEO and co-founder Nithin Kamath.

While the government hasn't provided any reason, Raveendran's exclusion comes as Byju's continues to face legal and financial headwinds in the form of a working capital crunch, a $1.2-billion Term Loan B fight with lenders, and Foreign Exchange Management Act violation allegations on an amount of Rs 9,300 crore, among other issues.

On the other hand, Chapman's startup ZestMoney, which popularised the 'buy-now-pay-later' product, will be shutting down by the end of this year after failing to secure funds or find a buyer.

The National Startup Advisory Council was constituted in January 2020 to advise the government on measures needed to ease starting up, incentivising domestic capital for investments and keep control of startups with original promoters.