The firm, which affords companies starting from on-line tutorials to offline teaching, attracted billions of {dollars} from buyers the world over in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic when on-line schooling companies had been on excessive demand.

Last Friday, main Byju’s shareholders, together with Netherlands-based world funding group Prosus, voted to oust founder Byju Raveendran as chief govt officer.

Investors who attended a rare basic assembly “unanimously passed all resolutions put forward for vote,” which additionally sought to alter the board, in line with a press release Prosus despatched CNBC.

“These included a request for the resolution of the outstanding governance, financial mismanagement and compliance issues at Byju’s; the reconstitution of the Board of Directors, so that it is no longer controlled by the founders of [Think & Learn Private Limited]; and a change in leadership of the company,” mentioned the assertion issued final Friday.

However, Byju’s rejected the resolutions, saying the extraordinary basic assembly was “invalid and ineffective” as a consequence of a low turnout attended solely by a “small cohort of select shareholders.”

“The passing of the unenforceable resolutions challenges the rule of law at worst,” the Bengaluru-headquartered agency mentioned in a press release to CNBC.

“Byju’s emphasizes that the Honorable Karnataka High Court had granted interim relief, clearly stating that any decisions made during the meeting would not be given effect until the next hearing,” it mentioned.

“As the founders did not participate in the meeting, the quorum was never legitimately established, rendering the resolutions null and void.”

In 2011, Raveendran — a instructor and engineer — based Think and Learn Private Limited, the father or mother firm of Byju’s. Raveendran was born right into a household of academics in Azhikode, a small village in southern India.

The firm claimed that the launch of its flagship product, Byju’s — The Learning App, noticed two million downloads inside three months of its rollout in 2015. The app affords interactive movies, video games and quizzes to assist college students with on a regular basis courses in addition to examination preparation.

The Covid-19 pandemic introduced exponential development to Byju’s when conventional lecture rooms shuttered, resulting in skyrocketing demand for on-line studying.

In November, Byju’s co-founder Divya Gokulnath instructed CNBC the corporate had greater than 100 million month-to-month college students on its platform.

Byju’s development attracted world buyers and vital funding rounds together with a $1.2 billion in debt financing in November 2021, in line with firm database service Crunchbase.

Flush with funds, Byju’s went on an acquisition spree between 2017 and 2021.

Some of Byju’s greatest acquisitions embody Aakash Educational Services, a number one test-prep firm in India, which it reportedly paid about $950 million for in 2021.

Other strategic acquisitions embody U.S-based kids’ digital reading platform Epic ($500 million), educational games maker Osmo ($120 million) and on-line coding faculty WhiteHat Jr.

“2022 would be the year of maximum acquisitions, nine big ones. So the pandemic was great, because it solved the biggest challenge of people not knowing about how online education can be a part of mainstream learning,” Gokulnath instructed CNBC in November final 12 months.

“But the disadvantage was also that we had to grow at a frenetic pace. We had to grow to ensure that we were able to meet the demand,” she added.

The finish of pandemic restrictions noticed a slowdown in on-line studying and Byju’s needed to let go of at the least 1,000 workers in June final 12 months, in line with tech jobs tracker layoffs.fyi.

In the identical month, the corporate’s auditor Deloitte and three of its distinguished board members severed ties with Byju’s, as questions loomed across the firm’s monetary well being and governance practices, in line with a Reuters report.

Byju’s filed its financials for 2022 in November final 12 months, after a year-long delay as a consequence of governance points and its auditor’s resignation. Operating losses got here to 24 billion Indian rupees (about $290 million) for its core on-line schooling enterprise.

“One thing that we should have focused on earlier is governance,” Gokulnath instructed CNBC within the November interview. “That’s something that we’re constantly building on to the next one year. I’m hopeful that we’re also able to stand on the governance side.”

Byju’s has reportedly struggled to repay a $1.2 billion loan and is said to be struggling with staff salaries as nicely. The agency mentioned in January it’s raising a $200 million rights issue of shares to clear “immediate liabilities” and for different operational prices.

The firm’s U.S. unit Alpha filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in a Delaware courtroom on Feb. 1.

Byju’s didn’t reply to CNBC’s request for remark.

On whether or not Byju’s has misplaced the boldness of shareholders, Gokulnath mentioned in November: “We would like to believe that we have not, because at all time, we’ve kept the interest of our students, parents, employees and shareholders in mind and what we are doing, we are doing to build this back together.”