• Byju’s sells Epic and Tynker for just $97.2M, despite acquiring them for $700M during its global expansion spree.
• Assets sold under U.S. bankruptcy court supervision as part of efforts to repay a $1.2B term loan.
• Once valued at $22B, Byju’s now faces legal probes, insolvency petitions, and governance crises.

Once India's most valued startup, Byju's is now selling off crucial U.S. assets at humongous losses as bankruptcy proceedings go on in Delaware. On May 30, Chicago-based computer science education company CodeHS completed the acquisition of Tynker, a coding app for kids, for a mere $2.2 million in cash. Byju's had initially purchased Tynker in 2021 for close to $200 million.

In a different court-monitored sale, Byju's sold its biggest U.S. subsidiary, kids' reading platform Epic!, to China's TAL Education Group in a $95 million deal. The deals were sanctioned by U.S. bankruptcy court judge Brendan Shannon and came after what legal filings termed an emergency "fire drill" out of concern about scrutiny by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

The distressed sales are a part of an attempt to recover money related to a $1.2 billion term loan Byju's obtained from U.S. banks in 2021 to fund its global expansion push. That loan, routed through a special-purpose vehicle called Byju's Alpha, is now wrapped in a litany of lawsuits, including claims of fraudulent transfers and boardroom shenanigans.

These disposals of assets stand in dramatic contrast to Byju's pre-pandemic acquisition binge, in which it spent hundreds of millions of dollars for overseas edtech firms. The $200 million Tynker acquisition and the $500 million Epic! purchase were both part of its effort to corner the global online learning market. The latter was its second-largest overseas acquisition following its $1 billion acquisition of India-based Aakash Institute.

Meanwhile, Osmo, an ed-tech gaming company acquired for $120 million in 2019, has also been listed for sale but remains unsold.

Previously valued at $22 billion and supported by marquee investors, Byju's is now facing escalating insolvency proceedings, regulatory attention, and a crisis of governance, marking a dramatic reversal from its previous unicorn status.

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