DigitalNewsServices

24×7 Live News

US Top news

BlackRock cuts Byju’s valuation by 95% to $1 billion

Mumbai: US-based asset manager black Rock The company, which holds a minority stake in troubled edtech startup Byju’s, has reduced the company’s valuation to $1 billion by October 2023. That’s a 95% decline from its peak valuation of $22 billion, at which the startup raised $250 million in funding from investors in October. 2022. The disclosure was made as part of a recent filing by an affiliate of the US firm BlackRock Global Allocation Fund With the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Last year, BlackRock cut the startup’s valuation to $8.4 billion.
The filing showed that BlackRock valued Byju’s shares at about $209.6 per share, below the 2022 high of $4,660, which effectively translates to a valuation of $1 billion. This development adds to the spate of valuation markdowns Byju’s has seen over the past several months. In November last year, Prosus, another investor in the Bengaluru-based startup, had valued it at less than $3 billion. Investors have collectively invested more than $5 billion in Byju’s, once a famous startup.
The markdown comes at a time when the company is grappling with a number of crises, including an investigation by executives, a liquidity crunch, senior-level exits and protracted negotiations with its lenders over repayment of the $1.2 billion Term Loan B. Financial statements for FY22 have been filed by the firm. It revealed that its core business remained loss-making – its EBITDA loss during the year stood at Rs 2,253 crore. Profitability remains a long way off for the struggling business and it has laid off more than 5,000 employees through October 2022. Trouble escalated for Byju when three of its board members and ex-auditor Deloitte resigned in June last year. Startup industry executives and analysts believe that serious lapses in what was once India’s most valuable privately owned startup have made investors wary of the broader edtech sector and made them look more closely at corporate governance practices at startups. Has inspired to tighten the investigation.
Byju’s has not yet filed its FY2023 results and is trying to sell some of its assets like Epic and Great Learning to repay its term loan.



Source link

LEAVE A RESPONSE

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *