Why Deloitte ditched Byju’s

Byju’s, the Indian edtech giant and India’s most valuable startup, entered 22 June with something of a PR crisis on its hands. Mere days earlier, it had laid off 1,000 employees. Now, news had broken that the company’s lending partners—non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), including Aditya Birla Finance—had suspended disbursals meant to finance purchases of Byju’s various offerings.

By the time the day ended, Byju Raveendran, the company’s founder and CEO, had a lot more trouble on his hands. While the company has denied the news, it was reported that three members of the company’s board—Vivian Wu of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, GV Ravindran of Peak XV Partners (Formerly Sequoia Capital India and SEA), and Russell Dreisenstock of Prosus Ventures—had tendered their resignations.

And even as the company was fighting these raging fires, it emerged that Deloitte, the company’s statutory auditor, had tendered its resignation from Byju’s and its subsidiary, Aakash Educational Services. Deloitte was appointed as the statutory auditor of Think & Learn Pvt Limited, the parent entity housing Byju’s and its subsidiaries, in April 2020 for a period of five years, ending in March 2025.