According to BlackRock filings, the implied valuation of Byju’s has dropped to $1 billion from $22 billion in early 2022.
Last October, BlackRock valued Byju’s shares at $209.6, down from $4,660 in 2022, implying a $990 million valuation. Asset management, like other mutual fund investors, discloses its portfolio many times a year but doesn’t explain value changes. A new valuation adjustment was not previously disclosed.
Byju’s minority owner, BlackRock, did not reply to a request for comment on Thursday. Byju’s wouldn’t comment.
BlackRock isn’t the first investor to lower Byju’s, but this is the most extreme. Late last year, Prosus, which owns 9% of Byju’s, valued it at “sub $3 billion.” Byju’s was India’s most valued startup at $22 billion.
Byju’s, long the poster child of the Indian startup community, has suffered a startling value fall. Eltrys said that top investment bankers valued the business at $50 billion after it spent over $2.5 billion in 2021 and 2022 purchasing over half a dozen companies.
Over a dozen industry leaders, including Peak XV Partners, Lightspeed, UBS, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, have funded Byju’s. In the last decade, the business has received over $5 billion in stock and debt. Its teachers utilized real-life products like pizza and cake to explain hard ideas, which made it famous in India.
SPAC deals were planned to take Byju’s public in early 2022 at a $40 billion valuation. According to a source, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February lowered markets, causing Byju’s to postpone its IPO. As market circumstances deteriorated, so did Byju’s business prospects. The corporation was under increasing investor pressure to settle unsolved difficulties.
Today, Byju’s faces several issues: it struggles to generate funds, pay wages, and repay its billion-plus debt. In a delayed statement last month, the firm said it missed its sales goal for the fiscal year ending March 2022.
After Deloitte and three key board members abruptly departed Byju in June, CFO Ajay Goel left the firm in less than seven months to return to Vedanta in late October. In July, Prosus publicly chastised the Bengaluru-based business for not developing and ignoring investor advice despite numerous efforts.
