Blow to Byju's as auditor Deloitte, 3 directors resign

Edtech unicorn Byju’s suffered a twin blow with its statutory auditor and three external board members stepping down, adding to troubles for the company battling lenders, lawsuits, and a funding winter.

- Ranjani Raghavan & Sneha Shah

MUMBAI: Deloitte Haskins & Sells, which audited the books of Byju’s parent Think & Learn Pvt. Ltd for six years, announced its resignation on Thursday with immediate effect, citing long-delayed financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2022. Last year, Deloitte was appointed auditor for Byju’s-owned Aakash Educational Services Ltd and unit Aakash EduTech Pvt. Ltd.

Separately, all three external directors of Think & Learn submitted their resignations earlier this month, two people aware of the development said. The directors represent Peak XV (formerly Sequoia Capital), Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), and Prosus Ventures. Peak XV owns around 6% in Think & Learn, while CZI owns 2.5-3%, and Prosus 9%. The resignations were discussed at a shareholders’ discussion on Sunday, the people cited above added.

“The company has 30 days legally before it needs to tell the Registrar of Companies about the resignations," one of the two people said.

Think & Learn on Thursday named BDO (MSKA & Associates) as the statutory auditor of the company and all its subsidiaries. However, it termed the news of the directors’ exits as “speculative", adding it “firmly denies these claims".

A Prosus spokesperson declined to comment, directing queries to Byju’s. Peak XV also declined to comment, while CZI did not respond to a request for comment.