Edutech: Singapore court sentences Byju Raveendran for six months in contempt case
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Byju Raveendran, one of the most successful pioneers in education technology (edutech) segment in India, was sentenced to a six-month term in jail by a Singapore court in a contempt case, the media reported on Wednesday.
He was ordered to serve jail time after the court said he had disobeyed multiple orders related to his assets dating back to April 2024.
Raveendran was directed to surrender himself to officials and pay costs of Singaporean dollars 90,000 (USD 70,500).
The founder of the now-failed Indian education technology firm Byju’s was also instructed to provide documents proving his legal ownership of Beeaar Investco Pte, a corporate entity that held shares in a related company.
The threat of jail time is the latest blow to a pioneer who is now facing claims from foreign investors around the world, including in the US where lenders are fighting to claw back losses from a USD 1.2 billion loan that soured.
It was unclear if Raveendran was in Singapore or elsewhere.
Raveendran’s founding of educational technology firm Think & Learn Pvt — better known as Byju’s — turned him into a billionaire, making him one of the major success stories among a wave of Indian start-ups that attracted capital from global firms. His firm skyrocketed during the COVID-19 lockdown months in 2020 and 2021, but nosedived after that when educational institutions reopened.
He is now being pursued in Singapore’s court system by a subsidiary of sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority, which participated in a funding round for the edutech firm as it was cutting jobs and laying off staff.
Qatar Holdings was represented by Drew & Napier in the matter. Byju’s Investments was represented by Fervent Chambers.
