Code.org, a non-profit educational organization in the United States, has filed a lawsuit in a California district court saying that Byju’s subsidiary, WhiteHat Jr., violated a license agreement by neglecting to pay fees while continuing to utilize Code.org’s platform.
Last year, WhiteHat Jr. collaborated with Code.org and agreed to spend $4 million over four years to license Code.org’s coding education platform. However, in a complaint filed earlier this month, Code.org argues that WhiteHat Jr. failed to meet the payment schedule while continuing to use its coding courseware.
According to Code.org’s legal complaint, WhiteHat Jr. paid its 2022 license cost but then warned the non-profit early this year that it would be unable to make the next four-year payments. WhiteHat Jr., according to Code.org, sought that the original agreement be revised to backload its outstanding licensing price commitments. However, Code.org’s attorneys say that the original contract clearly states that, even if the contract is terminated, WhiteHat Jr. is still obligated to pay any future license fees that are still outstanding.
“Whitehat has yet to pay either the Q1 2023 invoice or the Q2 2023 invoice.” “In fact, despite Code.org’s repeated written and oral requests for payment, Whitehat has not paid anything beyond the $1,000,000 that it paid pursuant to the 2022 invoices before the Agreement was amended,” Code.org attorneys claim.
A request for comment from Byju’s was not returned.
The lawsuit is the latest setback for Byju’s after its acquisition of WhiteHat Jr., and it adds to the company’s already existing problems. Eltrys said that the Indian edtech behemoth, estimated at $22 billion in a fundraising round early in 2022, considered shutting down WhiteHat Jr. earlier this year.
It also adds to Byju’s troubles, which are already being criticized for long delays in submitting financial statements and governance concerns. Prosus, a prominent supporter of Byju’s, reportedly reduced the startup’s value to less than $3 billion.
