Byju Raveendran (born 1980) is an Indian entrepreneur and teacher who founded the online education company BYJU’S. Starting with test-preparation classes for a few friends, he built a learning app that was valued at 22 billion dollars in 2022, the highest of any Indian startup. The company then ran into heavy losses, disputes with lenders and investors, and insolvency proceedings, making it the most dramatic rise and fall in India’s startup story.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Byju Raveendran |
| Born | 1980, Azhikode, Kannur district, Kerala, India |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur, teacher |
| Known for | Founder of BYJU’S (Think and Learn Pvt. Ltd.) |
| Education | Government College of Engineering, Kannur (B.Tech.) |
| Spouse | Divya Gokulnath |
| Children | 2 sons |
Early Life
Raveendran was born in a coastal village in Kannur, where both his parents were schoolteachers; he studied in a Malayalam-medium school and has said he learned English from cricket commentary. After an engineering degree he worked as a service engineer for a shipping company. On a holiday in 2003 he helped friends prepare for the CAT management entrance test, took it himself and scored in the 100th percentile, and repeated the feat two years later.
Career
He began teaching full time in 2006. His classes grew from rooms to auditoriums and then to a sports stadium, and he travelled between cities each week. In 2011 he and a group of former students, including Divya Gokulnath, registered Think and Learn. BYJU’S – The Learning App, launched in August 2015, offered video lessons for school pupils and drew millions of users within months.
Investors including the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Tencent, Naspers and Tiger Global funded the company, which became a unicorn in 2018. During the pandemic it raised billions of dollars and bought more than a dozen firms, among them WhiteHat Jr, the coaching chain Aakash, Great Learning and the American reading platform Epic. BYJU’S sponsored the Indian cricket team’s jersey and the 2022 FIFA World Cup, with Shah Rukh Khan as its brand ambassador.
As schools reopened, demand fell. The company delayed its accounts and then reported a loss of more than 4,500 crore rupees for 2020–21. Complaints grew about aggressive selling to parents, thousands of staff were laid off, its auditor and several board members resigned in 2023, and lenders of a 1.2 billion dollar loan took it to court in the United States. Investors marked the valuation down almost to zero. In July 2024 a tribunal admitted the company to insolvency on a petition by the cricket board over unpaid sponsorship dues. Raveendran lost control of the business; litigation in India and the United States continues, and he denies wrongdoing.
Personal Life
He married Divya Gokulnath, a co-founder of the company who had been his student, and they have two sons. He is a keen footballer and cricket fan.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was Byju Raveendran born?
Byju Raveendran was born in 1980, Azhikode, Kannur district, Kerala, India.
What is Byju Raveendran known for?
Known for: Founder of BYJU’S (Think and Learn Pvt. Ltd.).
Featured image: Byju Raveendran at the fifth anniversary celebration of BYJU’S, March 2017. Photo by RPSkokie, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
