00:00 In late April of this year, Indian officials in plain clothes raided the Bengaluru offices
00:06 of Baiju's seizing laptops.
00:09 The authorities publicly linked the education technology startup with possible foreign exchange
00:14 violations.
00:15 The firm's eponymous founder and chief executive, Baiju Ravindran, has apparently broken down
00:22 in tears defending his company.
00:24 Reports said that Ravindran had been in crisis mode for months.
00:27 Apart from the raid by India's financial crime-fighting agency, his once high-flying tutoring startup
00:34 failed to file its financial accounts on time.
00:37 Several US-based investors accused Baiju's of hiding half a billion dollars prompting
00:42 lawsuits.
00:43 On Tuesday, Process Envy, one of the company's earliest investors, said that it had given
00:48 up its board seat because of poor governance and disregard for directors' advice.
00:53 Baiju's and Ravindran have denied wrongdoing.Without easy access to global capital, companies are
00:59 now facing greater scrutiny over corporate governance, jeopardising India's quest to
01:04 pull even with the US and China as the tech capital of the world.
01:08 Ravindran's rise from a private tutor to the leader of a $22 billion company captivated
01:13 global investors, including Sequoia Capital, Blackstone Inc and Mark Zuckerberg's foundation.
01:19 During the pandemic, Ravindran cornered a majority of the ed-tech market in India.
01:24 But after classrooms reopened, concerns about Baiju's finances pricked at the firm's reputation.
01:30 Investors questioned why Ravindran delayed hiring a chief financial officer for years
01:34 and acquired more than a dozen companies across the world at breakneck speed.
01:39 Scores of employees have either left or been fired, board members have resigned, and many
01:44 teaching centres are nearly empty.
01:46 Ravindran supporters attribute missteps to the enthusiasm and naivety of an inexperienced
01:51 founder who grew too quickly.
01:54 Critics said that he acted recklessly by withholding information about finances and failing to
01:59 rigorously audit accounts.
02:01 In India's startup world, many see Baiju's as the highest-profile example of what happens
02:06 when a business scales one of the fastest-growing economies during boom but fails to plan for
02:11 a bust.
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