Byju's founder Byju Raveendran sentenced to six months in jail by Singapore court: Report

Entrepreneur and co-founder of beleaguered education technology company Byju's, Byju Raveendran has been sentenced to six months in jail by a Singaporean court for contempt, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday citing people familiar with the matter.

The court said he had disobeyed multiple orders related to his assets dating back to April 2024, after which he was ordered to serve jail time.

He has been instructed to surrender himself to officials, pay costs of S$90,000 (approx. Rs 67.50 lakh) and provide documents proving his legal ownership of Beeaar Investco Pte, a corporate entity that held shares in a related company.

The jail term threat is the latest blow to Raveendran who is now facing claims from foreign investors around the world, including in the US where lenders are fighting to claw back losses from a $1.2 billion loan that soured.

According to a Reuters report, the ​order relates to a $150 million loan from the sovereign wealth fund to Byju's Singapore-based investment firm.

The QIA approached a Singapore court and Raveendran was asked to repay the loan in 2025, the source ⁠said.

In ‌a statement on Wednesday, Raveendran said lenders, including GLAS Trust and the QIA, ‌had "agreed in principle" to a settlement, with only minor ⁠issues left to be finalized.

"The decision by QIA to continue pressing this ‌matter appears to be an unnecessary ‌pressure tactic at a sensitive stage of the ‌settlement process," Raveendran said.

"QIA is happy ‌with the court ruling," a spokesperson for the firm said.

Raveendran’s founding of educational technology firm Think & Learn Pvt — better known as Byju’s — turned him into a billionaire, making him one of the major success stories among a wave of Indian start-ups that have attracted capital from global firms.

He is now being pursued in Singapore’s court system by a subsidiary of sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority, which participated in a funding round for the tech firm as it was cutting jobs and laying off staff.

Qatar Holdings was represented by Drew & Napier in the matter. Byju’s Investments was represented by Fervent Chambers.