BENGALURU (Reuters) – Dutch-listed technology investor Prosus NV has slashed the valuation of troubled Indian edtech startup Byju’s to $5.1 billion according to its annual report, a fall of more than 75% from the startup’s $22 billion valuation last year.
Prosus cut the value of its 9.6% stake in Byju’s to around $493 million in the financial year ended March 31, the report added, days after it stepped down from Byju’s board along with other investors. Prosus is the company’s biggest investor shareholder.
Byju’s, once India’s most valuable startup, counts investors such as General Atlantic and BlackRock among its backers, but has seen its auditor Deloitte and three investor board members resign in recent days. Deloitte said it was unable to audit the company because it did not receive financial statements for 2021-22.
It is also battling a U.S lawsuit over a $1.2 billion loan, which came weeks after raids over suspected violations of foreign exchange laws.
Byju’s told investors it will file 2022 audited earnings by September and 2023 results by December, Reuters reported.
Earlier this year, Blackrock, too, had cut Byju’s valuation to $8.3 billion.
India’s Employee Provident Fund Organisation on Tuesday observed a shortfall in payments from Byju’s, Reuters reported. Byju’s deposited 1.23 billion rupees ($15.01 million) after the EPFO asked it to.
(This story has been refiled to fix the company name to BlackRock from Blackrock in paragraph 3)
($1 = 81.9820 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru and M. Sriram in Mumbai; Editing by Pooja Desai)
