Prosus cuts valuation of Byju's by half to sub-$3 bn

Dutch investor Prosus Ventures on Wednesday axed the valuation of Byju’s by more than half to below $3 billion, in another setback for the edtech giant battling lenders, lawsuits and investigations.

- Ranjani Raghavan

This is the third time the tech investor, which owns 9.67% of Byju’s, has marked down the company’s valuation, after slashing it to $5.9 billion last November and further to $5 billion this June. At its peak in July 2022, Byju’s was India’s most valued startup worth $22.5 billion.

Prosus interim group chief executive Ervin Tu and group chief financial officer Basil Sgourdos said it had written down a further $315 million on its Byju’s investment. The company has invested $536 million in Byju’s since 2018.

“We have reported a markdown in Byju’s carrying value. That’s really just driven off the numbers that we’ve received and digested, and assessing those against what we originally thought the business might do. It doesn’t necessarily reflect the long-term view of the business," Sgourdos said at an earnings call.