A $600-million Byju’s deal unwound: Great Learning finds its way back to founders
The co-founder of Great Learning, the skills development company Byju’s acquired in 2021, bought back the India unit of the sold company for a fraction of the $600 million it was sold for, according to an executive with knowledge of the transaction; this account is supported by documents filed with the registry of companies (RoC) of India.
Millionaire businessman Byju Raveendran and Think & Learn Pvt. Ltd, or TLPL, was once the flagship company of his own education technology empire, courted by the world’s top venture funders and private lenders, battling creditors in bankruptcy cases, Mohan Krishna Lakhamraju has been revealed to have struck a cash deal in early 2024 to buy back full control of Great Learning Education Services Pvt. Ltd, a business formerly owned by him and his co-founders that still generates almost $200 million in revenue ₹500 crore per year in India.
The executive, who insisted on remaining off the record, said the value at which the Indian unit was bought back was $10 million. Mint we were unable to independently verify this.
Mint He also learned that Lakhamraju was negotiating with TLPL’s term lenders, who moved quickly to gain control over assets linked to Byju’s offshore entities, to whom they had lent group company shares as collateral to acquire Singapore-listed Great Learning Education Pte. Lenders are looking for an enterprise value of around $150-200 million for the Singapore unit, the executive previously quoted anonymously as saying.
Enterprise value, often called the total value of a business, sums the value of shares and debt, excluding cash and cash equivalents on its books.
Republic of Cyprus records show that shareholders of Great Learning Education Services Pvt. Ltd, the Indian company currently controlled by Lakhamraju ₹300 crore in related party transactions involving Singapore companies Great Learning Education Pte. Ltd, Northwest Education Pte. Ltd and Northwest Executive Education Pte. Ltd, as well as Chennai management school Great Lakes Institute of Management. The B-school and Great Learning companies are not related through shareholding as per Republic of Cyprus documents, but the former is headed by Lakhamraju.
The above-mentioned executive estimates that the Great Learning business in Singapore generates 50% more revenue than the India unit, but this also cannot be confirmed by the following data: Mint from compliance documentation.
Founded in 2013, Great Learning sells online programs for professionals working in fields such as data science and business analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and software development, among others. It manages much of its portfolio through academic affiliations, including programs offered with overseas partners such as Great Lakes, Vellore-based SRM Institute and Texas Executive Education at the University of Texas at Austin.
Byju’s acquisition of the Great Learning global franchise in July 2021 enabled it to enter the executive training and professional skill development segment; this is an adjacent, higher-ticket category compared to core K-12 test prep and learning products.
Byju’s acquisition of Great Learning in July 2021 marked its foray into executive education and professional skill development.
Administrative and security agent Lakhamraju, Great Learning, TLPL and GLAS Trust, representing the lenders, did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.
Compliance documentation reveals a lot
The main reason why Great Learning buyback talks accelerated was that the $600 million acquisition announced in 2021 was not paid in full, one of the people previously cited said.
The other trigger was that lenders increased their enforcement on Byju’s offshore collateral: In October 2023, finance and risk consultancy Kroll Pte. Ltd has been appointed as trustee to assume control of Great Learning Education Pte. Ltd. With the India business back in control, Lakhamraju is now busy with lenders to hammer out a deal for the Singapore unit.
Applications for India’s Republic of Cyprus show Byju Raveendran has ceased to be the director of the Indian company Great Learning Education Services Pvt. Ltd.’s brother and co-promoter of TLPL, Riju Ravindran, was also not mentioned as a director on the same date.
Great Learning Educational Services Pvt. Ltd previously had three board members; the third is Lakhamraju.
The same annual return as on March 31, 2025 from Great Learning Education Services Pvt. Ltd had two directors: Lakhamraju, the company’s managing director, and Hari Krishnan Nair, another co-founder.
Byju and Riju’s departure from Great Learning Services Pvt. Ltd’s board of directors came after GLAS Trust Company LLC, the administrative and security agent for TLPL’s $1.2 billion term loan lenders, moved the Bengaluru bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) seeking to initiate insolvency proceedings against the parent company of Byju’s company. The lenders said they went to court after months of failed restructuring talks and allegations of default under the term loan.
Beginning of the agreement
The Great Learning business was fully acquired by TLPL for $600 million in a cash, stock and earnings deal in July 2021. Both parties said at the time that Great Learning would continue to operate as an independent unit within the Byju group under Lakhamraju, along with Hari Krishnan Nair and third co-founder Arjun Nair.
The Great Learning deal comes after Byju’s aggressive buying spree in 2021 saw the education technology firm raise capital from investors including UBS Group, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign fund ADQ and Blackstone. Earlier that year, Byju had signed its biggest deal in India: buying test prep company Aakash Educational Services Ltd (AESL) for around $1 billion, and later acquired US reading platform Epic in a $500 million cash-and-stock deal.
The strategic goal was a leap of faith despite the over-the-top goals seen across the digital ecosystem: to build a fully-fledged edtech platform to serve large areas of demand around the world.
But the dreams were dashed when revenues failed to keep up with ambitions and some of Byju’s overseas assets became focal points in lender lawsuits. The term lenders alleged that control of Epic was moved away from the debtor group through a series of steps involving offshore entities. These claims are being challenged in US courts.
In India, AESL is currently controlled by founder JC Chaudhry and private equity investor Ranjan Pai of the Manipal group, who bought out Blackstone and increased its stake to over 58% last year.
After being acquired by Byju’s in July 2021, Great Learning in May 2022 acquired executive education provider Northwest Executive Education, which partners with universities and business schools to offer short-format and certificate-style programs for working professionals in Singapore and other markets, in a cash and stock deal that media reports later pegged at around $100 million. Northwest was founded by Mohit Jain and Tamhant Jain, both Harvard Business School graduates, according to their LinkedIn profiles.
The road ahead leads to Singapore
RoC filings show Great Learning Education Services Pvt. Ltd remains committed to its offshore holding structure: its fiscal 2025 annual return lists Singapore-based Powerahead Pte Ltd as the 100%-owned holding company.
The last annual general meeting (AGM) of the Indian company was held on September 25, 2025, where the shareholders adopted the audited independent and consolidated financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2025.
At the same meeting, as previously mentioned, shareholders approved related party transactions for fiscal year 2026, setting the total ceiling amount. ₹300 crore. General Assembly filing breaks the rules ₹300 crore ceiling as per lower limits: maximum ₹Great Learning Education Pte. with 200 crores. up to Ltd. ₹40 crore with two assets in the northwest and up to ₹60 crore with the Great Lakes Institute of Management. These transactions “included payments/receipts for business support (including manpower support and related services and investment in technology),” according to the filing. [Great Lakes was founded by the late Bala V. Balachandran, formerly a professor at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University in Illinois, United States. He passed away in Chicago in September 2021.]
Indian company Great Learning Education Services Pvt. Ltd’s revenue increased ₹470.8 crore in fiscal 2025 ₹Total expenses stood at 456.4 crore a year ago ₹499.7 crore onwards ₹515.2 crore as per the consolidated financial statements stated with the Republic of Cyprus. Total debt remained at the same level ₹188 crore in both years and net loss narrowed sharply ₹2.2 crore in fiscal 2025 ₹58 crore in fiscal 2024.
A legal expert contacted Mint to explain possible ways Lakhamraju and the co-founders could get Big Learning back from Byju. Archana Balasubramanian, partner at Agama Law Associates, said that in a standard Indian share purchase agreement (SPA), payment and share transfer occur together. However, nothing prevents the parties from transferring shares for deferred consideration.
But if the buyer defaults on a deferred payment, solid SPAs often carry a “clawback” clause that explains what will happen if the money does not arrive. In an unlisted Indian company, the key requirements on the seller’s side are approval from the board of directors and shareholders’ resolution for repurchase of shares.
“Given the discount to the valuation of Byju and its subsidiaries as a whole, it would have become easier and more economical for the former founder and current CEO to acquire the shares,” Balasubramanian said. Mint.
