Byju’s to miss salary deadline as wrangling with investors continue

New Delhi: Edtech firm Byju's may miss the deadline to pay salaries to employees for the month of February, NDTV reported citing Business Today.

As the funds the company raised remain stuck, Byju’s will not reportedly be able to credit the salaries of more than 20,000 employees.

The cash-strapped company’s CEO Byju Raveendran previously said efforts were on to ensure the payment by March 10.

In an email to employees on March 2, Raveedran said that the company was ‘striving’ to pay salary by March 10, adding ‘We shall make these payments the moment we are permitted to do so as per law.’

Raveendran criticised a group of investors for moving a resolution and thus getting the company’s fund locked in another account.

‘..I regret to inform you that we will still be unable to process your salaries…..Unfortunately, a select few (4 out of our 150+ investors) have stooped to a heartless level, ensuring that we are unable to utilise the funds raised to pay your hard-earned salaries,’ the email read.

’At their behest, the amount raised through the rights issue is currently locked in a separate account,’ he added.

Raveedran who was once considered to be the poster boy for startup ventures in India, claimed that ‘It is an agonizing reality that some of these investors have already reaped substantial profits – in fact, one of them has made a staggering eight times their initial investment in Byju's. And yet, their actions convey a callous disregard for our lives and livelihoods.’

Last month, some shareholders of the company decided to remove Raveendran from the board of the company he founded in 2015.