The company has told the affected employees that it would deposit the pending salaries by Monday, said the people cited above. It has about 14,000 employees in India, excluding subsidiaries like Aakash Institute.
Byju’s salary cycle resets on the first of every month. The impacted employees are housed under Think & Learn, the parent firm of Byju’s. This does not include its test prep subsidiary, Aakash Institute, the people said.
A spokesperson for Byju’s confirmed the delay in salary disbursement, saying, “We have noticed a delay in processing salary for some limited employees (<5%) due to an unexpected technical glitch. The issue is being rectified over the weekend and payment will be processed by Monday.”
“We are in tension now because equated monthly installments (EMI) need to be paid off among other monthly expenditures… what if our salaries do not come by the fourth as well?” one of the affected employees said, adding the situation remains unpredictable.
On November 29, ET reported that top investors in Byju’s have put certain conditions for infusing fresh capital into the company. These include presenting the audited FY23 results as well as easing of control from company founder and chief executive Byju Raveendran in the firm’s day-to-day operations.
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The company needs at least $120-130 million, ET had reported. The company had told ET it continues to be in talks with multiple sources for new funding.The people cited above said the delay in November salary is across staff levels.
“There is a delay this time and that’s why the company has been trying to arrange new financing to ensure fixed costs are taken care of without any hassle,” one of the persons cited above said.
The delay in salary payments came even as Prosus, one of Byju’s major investors, marked down its valuation further to below $3 billion for the first half of this financial year. In March, Byju’s was valued by Prosus at around $5.1 billion.
Meanwhile, on November 21, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) issued show cause notices to Byju’s and Raveendran for violations involving an amount of Rs 9,362.35 crore under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). A week later, the company issued a statement saying it maintains and will continue to maintain complete adherence to all relevant regulations under FEMA.
It has also been dragged to the National Company Law Tribunal by the Board of Control for Cricket in India over a dispute related to sponsorship payment but Byju’s said it is looking to settle the issue.
ET reported last month that Manipal Education and Medical Group chairman Ranjan Pai has extended around Rs 250-270 crore in fresh funding to Raveendran a few weeks back for daily operations of the company. Raveendran has pledged a part of his personal stake in Aakash for this financing.