One headline calls Byju's a $22 billion company that collapsed into nothing. Another headline, from the very same week, says its coaching arm Aakash just got valued at $2 billion. Both headlines are talking about the exact same group.
If that leaves you wondering how a company can be worth nothing and $2 billion at the same time, I would call you a "Wanderer." You are not confused because this story is complicated on purpose. You are confused because nobody has explained what "valuation" actually means once a company stops trading on the stock market.
So, dear Wanderer, here at The Bazaar Guru, let's untangle it together: how Byju's actually fell apart, why Aakash is still worth real money, and what both numbers teach you about how a private company's value is really decided.
In This Post:
Where the Byju's-Aakash Settlement Actually Stands
How Byju's Went From $22 Billion to "Worth Zero"
What Is Aakash, and Why Are Lenders Fighting Over It?
The $2 Billion Question: How Was This Number Decided?
Lesson 1: A Private Valuation Is Just an Opinion Until Someone Pays
Lesson 2: Debt Doesn't Care About Your Growth Story
Lesson 3: One Good Business Can Outlive a Bad Company
Common Mistakes Investors Make When Reading Startup Valuations
FAQ
Key Takeaways
Go Deeper
Disclaimer
Where the Byju's-Aakash Settlement Actually Stands
Byju's global lenders, represented by a group called GLAS Trust, have spent months negotiating to take roughly a 30% ownership stake in Aakash Educational Services. This would happen at a settlement value of about $2 billion, and in exchange, the lenders would drop all legal action against Byju's founder, Byju Raveendran.
On July 16, 2026, the Committee of Creditors (CoC), the group of lenders that formally votes on decisions during a company's insolvency case, approved this settlement on behalf of Byju's parent company, Think & Learn. The settlement papers have since been shared with Aakash and its largest shareholder, Manipal Group, formally known as Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG), and everyone is now waiting on their final sign off.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), the special court in India that handles this case, has asked for more clarity before approving anything further. It wants to know exactly where the settlement money is coming from, needs a bank guarantee to be renewed, and is also waiting on a separate application that Raveendran filed with the Supreme Court connected to this same settlement.
Because of these open questions, the tribunal pushed the next hearing on this specific matter to August 18, 2026. As of writing this, the deal is close but still not signed, and the exact terms could still shift before then.
How Byju's Went From $22 Billion to "Worth Zero"
Byju's was started in 2011 by Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath. It grew fast, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic when many students were learning from home. At one point, Byju's said it had over 150 million registered students, and in early 2022 it was valued at $22 billion, making it the world's most valuable education-technology (edtech) company.
Things started going wrong for a few clear reasons. Byju's spent huge amounts of money buying other companies, including Aakash for close to $1 billion, a US reading app called Epic for $500 million, and a games company called Osmo for $120 million.
All this buying meant Byju's was spending far more than it was earning, even while its total sales kept growing. One way to check if a company is actually making money from its core business is to look at a number called EBITDA, which simply means the profit a business makes from its everyday operations, before you subtract things like interest on loans, taxes, and the wear and tear on equipment.
When students went back to school after the pandemic and online tutoring became less popular, this spending problem became harder to hide. By January 2024, a major investor called BlackRock cut its estimate of Byju's value by 95%, bringing it down to around $1 billion. Soon after, Byju's raised emergency funds at a value of just $225 million, a fall of about 99% from its 2022 peak.
Here is a detail that's easy to get wrong: the actual legal case that pushed Byju's parent company, Think & Learn, into insolvency (a legal process for a company that cannot pay what it owes) did not start with Byju's big foreign lenders.
It started on July 16, 2024, over an unpaid bill of about ₹158 crore that Byju's owed to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the organisation that runs cricket in the country, for a sponsorship deal.
Byju's founder's brother, Riju Raveendran, paid off that BCCI bill soon after, and the two sides tried to close the case. But by then, a Committee of Creditors had already been formed, and Indian insolvency law says a case cannot be closed without that committee's approval.
GLAS Trust, representing lenders owed roughly $1.2 billion through a loan called Term Loan B, objected to closing the case this way. Courts have sided with the lenders on this question again and again since, most recently in 2026.
That is exactly why the same Committee of Creditors, in which GLAS Trust alone holds more than 99% of the voting power, is the body deciding Aakash's fate today. By October 2024, Raveendran himself told reporters the company was effectively "worth zero."
What Is Aakash, and Why Are Lenders Fighting Over It?
Aakash Educational Services is a well-known coaching institute chain that helps students prepare for medical and engineering entrance exams. Byju's bought it for close to $1 billion in 2021.
Unlike much of the rest of the Byju's group, Aakash still runs a real, working business, with more than 300 centres, over 5,000 teachers, and last-reported yearly revenue of about $254 million (a rough conversion at current exchange rates puts this at roughly ₹2,100 crore, though this figure isn't itself a reported number).
Ownership of Aakash today is split three ways, and each part is disputed. Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG), led by businessman Ranjan Pai, owns the largest share, roughly 58%, after a series of rights issues and debt-to-equity conversions diluted Think & Learn's original stake over time.
Think & Learn itself still holds about 25.75% of Aakash. This portion has been protected by an order from India's Supreme Court, although a separate ₹240 crore rights issue at Aakash has been a repeated flashpoint, with Think & Learn's share of that new issue put on hold while regulators check the source of the funds.
A further, smaller block of about 1.78 crore shares, tied personally to Raveendran through a Singapore-based company called Beeaar Investco, is caught up in a separate dispute involving the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), a large government-owned investment fund.
It's this tangled, three-way ownership question, not how well Aakash's coaching business is actually doing, that the current settlement is trying to sort out. One thing worth knowing: these percentages come from separate news reports, and no single source lays them all out together in one clean ownership chart, so treat the exact numbers as roughly right rather than exact.
The $2 Billion Question: How Was This Number Decided?
For a company listed on the stock market, like most companies you'd buy shares in through a broker, anyone can check its price the moment the market is open. Aakash's $2 billion figure isn't a market price like that at all. It's a number that a small group of people negotiated to settle a legal dispute, and as we've seen, it's still being finalised.
For a listed company, you can check if a price seems fair using simple tools like the P/E ratio, which just tells you how many rupees investors are paying for every rupee of the company's yearly profit. A private company like Aakash has no such public check. Its "value" is simply whatever the most recent deal, fundraising, or in this case, legal settlement, says it is.
That $2 billion number is shaped as much by what each side wants as by how Aakash's business is actually doing. The lenders want to recover as much money as possible. Manipal wants the legal fight to end cleanly. Raveendran wants to stop being personally sued. All three of these wants are baked into the price on the table.
Lesson 1: A Private Company's "Value" Is Just an Opinion Until Someone Actually Pays
When people said Byju's was "worth" $22 billion, that number came from a small group of investors who each bought a small slice of the company. It was never tested by a real, open market where lots of buyers and sellers set a price all day, every day, the way stock prices work.
The moment one big investor, BlackRock, took a closer look and cut its estimate by 95%, the headline number fell just as fast, without a single share actually being bought or sold on an exchange.
That's the key difference between a private company and a listed one. A listed company's share price is set again and again, all day, by anyone who wants to trade. A private company's value is set rarely, by a handful of people, and can be changed overnight.
Lesson 2: Debt Doesn't Care About Your Growth Story
No matter how impressive a company's valuation looks, its loan repayments still fall due on fixed dates. A big "value" on paper doesn't pay a single rupee of that bill.
Byju's fight with its lenders is about roughly $1.2 billion in unpaid loans, a fight that has run for years across courts in three different countries. And within Byju's insolvency case itself, a single lender group, GLAS Trust, holds more than 99% of the voting power in the Committee of Creditors. Even a company once valued at $22 billion can end up with its future decided almost entirely by the people it owes money to.
You may also want to read: How Haldiram's Became a $10 Billion Snack Empire
Lesson 3: One Good Business Can Outlive a Bad Company
Even as the rest of the Byju's group fell apart, Aakash kept running its coaching centres and kept enrolling students. Unlike Byju's main online-tutoring business, Aakash had real customers paying directly for a service they actually used and valued.
That's exactly why lenders are fighting so hard over Aakash and not the rest of the Byju's group. It's the one part of the company whose value didn't disappear. The lesson for any investor is simple: judge each part of a business by its own numbers, not by the reputation of the bigger company it belongs to.
Common Mistakes Investors Make When Reading Startup Valuations
- Thinking a big valuation means the company has that much cash. A $22 billion "value" was never money Byju's could actually spend. It was just an estimate based on the price of a tiny slice of the company.
- Assuming a large fundraise means the company is profitable. Raising money and making money are two very different things. Big fundraises often just cover big losses.
- Ignoring how and when loans need to be repaid. An impressive growth story does not push back a loan's due date.
- Thinking "unicorn" (a company valued over $1 billion) automatically means financially healthy. Crossing that number says nothing about whether a company can actually pay what it owes.
- Not checking exactly who owns how much, or who controls the vote. As Aakash's tangled ownership and GLAS Trust's 99% voting share both show, control can matter as much as the headline value.
FAQ
What is Aakash Educational Services?
Aakash is a well-known coaching institute chain that helps students prepare for medical and engineering entrance exams. Byju's bought it for close to $1 billion in 2021. It's one of the few parts of the Byju's group that still earns real, meaningful revenue.
Why did Byju's valuation fall to zero?
A mix of reckless spending on acquisitions, falling demand once students went back to school after the pandemic, delays in publishing its financial results, and years of unresolved fights with lenders led investors to cut their estimate of Byju's value again and again, until its founder called it "worth zero" in October 2024.
Did a cricket board really trigger Byju's insolvency case?
Yes. The case that formally began on July 16, 2024 was triggered by an unpaid ₹158 crore sponsorship bill owed to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Byju's much larger fight with its foreign lenders over roughly $1.2 billion is a separate dispute that has since become tangled up with this same case.
How is a private company's value different from a listed company's share price?
A listed company's share price is set continuously through public trading on a stock exchange. A private company's value is set rarely, usually during a fundraise or a legal settlement, by just a handful of people, which makes it much easier for that number to change suddenly and sharply.
Has the Byju's-Aakash settlement been finalised?
Not yet, as of this writing. Think & Learn's Committee of Creditors approved it on July 16, 2026, but the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) wants more clarity on the source of funds and a bank guarantee before signing off. The next hearing on this specific matter is set for August 18, 2026.
Is Aakash still owned by Byju's?
Only partly. Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG) holds the largest share, roughly 58%. Byju's parent company, Think & Learn, owns about 25.75%, which is currently protected by a Supreme Court order. A further portion tied to founder Byju Raveendran is separately disputed.
What is GLAS Trust?
GLAS Trust represents the group of lenders that Byju's owes roughly $1.2 billion to through a loan called Term Loan B. It holds more than 99% of the voting power in Think & Learn's Committee of Creditors, and is the party leading the current settlement talks over Aakash.
Key Takeaways
- A private company's "value" is just an estimate agreed by a few people, not a real market price. It can collapse without a single share ever being bought or sold.
- Debt doesn't wait for a growth story to play out. A single lender group holding most of the voting power can end up deciding a company's fate, no matter how large its past valuation was.
- Even inside a struggling company, one part with real, paying customers can still hold genuine value.
- Always try to find out who actually owns how much of a company, and who controls the votes that decide its future.
- The Byju's-Aakash settlement is approved by creditors but not yet finalised. Watch for the next hearing on August 18, 2026, for the outcome.
Go Deeper
- What Does Promoter Holding Really Tell You About a Stock?
- FII vs DII: Who Is Really Buying the Indian Stock Market?
Disclaimer: This content is for educational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. Markets carry risk, and past patterns do not guarantee future performance. Please consult a SEBI-registered investment advisor before making any investment decisions.