Singapore court stays order to jail Byju’s Founder, lawyer says

Singapore’s high court sentenced the founder of failed Indian tech firm Byju’s to six months in prison, law firm Lazareff Le Bars said.

The ruling represents a reprieve for an entrepreneur who has been battling creditors in courts around the world. It follows last month’s ruling that sentenced Byju Raveendran to half a year in prison for contempt and ordered him to pay costs of S$90,000 ($70,000), saying he had failed to comply with orders regarding his assets since 2024.

This is the first time a judge has threatened to jail the once-prominent entrepreneur, who founded one of India’s most high-profile startups before the post-Covid crisis turned the business upside down. Lawyers said that an appeal was filed against the defamation decision.

Raveendran’s founding of education technology company Think & Learn Pvt (better known as Byju’s) turned him into a billionaire and made him one of the biggest success stories among the wave of Indian startups attracting capital from global firms.

It is currently being pursued in Singapore’s court system by a subsidiary of sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority, which participated in a financing round for the tech firm that has cut jobs and laid off staff. He also faces demands from foreign investors around the world, including the United States, where lenders are struggling to claw back losses on a $1.2 billion loan that has matured.