Byju's, once a $22 billion edtech giant, has collapsed. Founder Byju Raveendran faces jail for contempt. The remarkable thing about Byju’s is that it did not begin as a cynical idea. There was something authentic at its core. That is partly why the collapse feels so dramatic
The rise and collapse of Byju’s may sound like another story of a startup that failed. But it is the story of a particular moment in Indian capitalism when money was abundant and ambition was celebrated without restraint. And that was when growth itself became a moral virtue.
For years, Byju Raveendran embodied the mythology of aspirational India. He was the son of school teachers from Kerala who built a global education empire and became richer than old industrial families who had spent decades building factories and businesses. Investors saw him as a visionary. Parents trusted him with their children’s futures. Politicians and business leaders held him up as proof that India’s technology sector could produce world-beating companies.
For years, Byju Raveendran embodied the mythology of aspirational India. He was the son of school teachers from Kerala who built a global education empire and became richer than old industrial families who had spent decades building factories and businesses. Investors saw him as a visionary. Parents trusted him with their children’s futures. Politicians and business leaders held him up as proof that India’s technology sector could produce world-beating companies.