Byju’s Chief Financial Officer, Ajay Goel, who joined the edtech company in April of this year, has tendered his resignation, as announced on Tuesday. This development marks the latest setback for the startup, which has been grappling with numerous challenges. Goel is set to depart Byju’s once the long-pending audit procedures for the financial year ending March 2022 are completed and will return to the mining conglomerate Vedanta later this month, according to Byju’s.
In response to Goel’s departure, Byju’s has appointed industry veteran Pradip Kanakia as a senior advisor and promoted Nitin Golani, the current President of the company’s financial division, to the position of CFO. Goel expressed his appreciation, stating, “I thank the founders and colleagues at Byju’s for helping me assemble the FY22 audit in three months. I appreciate the support received during a short but impactful stint at Byju’s.”
This latest revelation on Tuesday represents a continued decline for Byju’s, India’s most valuable startup, which had previously garnered a valuation of up to $50 billion from investment banks in anticipation of an IPO. The company is currently contending with a multitude of issues related to governance, finance, and public perception.
Byju’s is engaged in negotiations with a consortium of lenders concerning a $1.2 billion term-B loan. Additionally, it is embroiled in a dispute with Davidson Kempner, which had initially agreed to provide up to $250 million in credit to Byju’s but is now seeking payment due to the activation of a technical default clause.
Ajay Goel’s departure comes on the heels of Deloitte severing its ties with the startup in June of the current year, along with the resignation of three key members from Byju’s board. A month later, Prosus, which owns more than 9% of Byju’s and is one of its earlier backers, publicly criticized the Bengaluru-based startup for not evolving adequately and disregarding investor advice and recommendations, despite multiple attempts. (Prosus also devalued Byju’s to $5.1 billion.)
Deloitte, in its resignation letter in June, cited Byju’s habit of repeatedly delaying the filing of its financial accounts and its failure to provide any communication regarding the resolution of the audit report for the financial year ending March 31, 2021, as well as the status of readiness of the financial statements and underlying books for the financial year ending March of the previous year.
Byju’s, which has cut over 10,000 jobs due to adverse market conditions, has also been repeatedly postponing the filing of its financial accounts for March 2022. The startup, which spent approximately $2.5 billion acquiring various firms in 2020 and 2021, is also in the process of selling many of these businesses to settle its outstanding debts to lenders.
