BYJU's long delay in FY21 audit report filing alarms govt, company mum

New Delhi, Aug 26

India's most-valuable startup BYJU's is facing larger scrutiny from the government as it has failed to submit its audited financial report from Deloitte for the financial year 2021 even after more than 17 months.

Insider company sources told IANS that the report is expected anytime soon, may be next week, but the long delay has now alarmed the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).

According to sources, the ministry sent a letter to BYJU's earlier this month, asking the $22 billion edtech startup to explain the delay in filing its audit report for FY21.

The IPO-bound BYJU's, according to sources privy to the development, has completed the consolidation of businesses after "ironing out the complexities" as the edtech unicorn made at least 10 acquisitions for a cumulative transaction value of about $2.5 billion last year.

According to them, there are "no compliance issues" as the company has filed its FY21 tax returns in the "due diligent manner".

BYJU's did not comment on the latest development.

In July, Congress MP Karti P. Chidambaram shot off a letter to the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) to investigate the finances of edtech major BYJU's.

Chidambaram called for a probe into BYJU's for not filing its 2020-21 (FY21) financial results, which the company had earlier stated to file by July 15, saying that it has yet to secure $250 million (around Rs 2,500 crore) capital from its most recent funding round in March.

The company, which faced intense scrutiny in the past couple of months over several issues ranging from delayed audit and layoffs, made multiple acquisitions in FY21 and each of these acquisitions had a different accounting style and year.

So far, BYJU's has raised over $6 billion in funding, and aims to file an IPO in the US through the Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) route.

The company is also reportedly in talks to raise another $1 billion as it expands globally.

According to reports, BYJU's is eyeing Nasdaq-listed American edtech company, 2U, for nearly $1 billion at $15 a share.

The company has already "closed" payments related to its $1 billion acquisition of offline test preparatory services provider Aakash Educational Services.