QIA Moves K'taka HC To Enforce $235 Mn Arbitral Award Against Byju Raveendran

Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has moved the Karnataka High Court (HC) against BYJU’S cofounder Byju Raveendran and his investment vehicle BYJU’S Investments Pte. Ltd (BIPL), seeking enforcement of a $235 Mn arbitral award.

The arbitral sum has been sought with an additional interest of 4% per annum, compounding daily. In a statement, the QIA said that the interest, which has been accruing from February 28, 2024, currently amounts to $14 Mn.

“Qatar Holding had filed an enforcement petition on August 12, 2025, before Karnataka High Court. The petition seeks enforcement of the award as a decree of court, and issuance of an injunction against transfer of assets by Raveendran or BIPL, along with attachment / sale of their immovable and movable assets in India,” the QIA said.

It added that the enforcement petition is a “concerted effort to reclaim money that it is lawfully owed under contract”.

“… For Qatar Holding, the enforcement petition is a concerted effort to reclaim money that it is lawfully owed under contract. Armed with a worldwide freezing order and parallel proceedings being pursued in a series of jurisdictions, the sovereign wealth fund looks to be pursuing all avenues of redress open to it in order to hold Raveendran and his entities responsible,” the statement added.

QIA Vs Byju Raveendran

The story harks back to the $150 Mn loan extended by Qatar Holding to BIPL in September 2022 through a share pledge agreement. As per the QIA, the financing was personally guaranteed by BYJU’S cofounder and then principal shareholder Raveendran.

BYJU’S was supposed to repay $300 Mn to the investor by March 31, 2025. The credit was partly used to finance the edtech’s acquisition of 1.78 Cr shares of Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL). The QIA claimed that there was an express restriction against transferring these shares.

However, in an alleged breach of the agreement, the shares were later transferred to another Singapore-based corporate entity, which was controlled by Raveendran. Subsequently, citing defaults, Qatar Holding terminated the transaction in February 2024 and demanded early repayment of $235 Mn.

“Both BIPL and Raveendran failed to meet their respective obligations under the contract and the personal guarantee,” it claimed.

Thereafter, in March 2024, the investor commenced arbitration proceedings against the edtech in Singapore. Later, an emergency arbitrator issued a global freezing order, amounting to $235 Mn, on BIPL’s and Raveendran’s funds and assets. The freeze order was subsequently also confirmed by the Singapore HC.

In July 2025, the arbitrator tribunal directed Raveendran and BIPL to pay $235 Mn, including an interest of 4% per annum, to the QIA.

Founded in 2011 by Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath, BYJU’S was once the poster child of India’s edtech revolution and was valued at over $20 Bn. However, the company was thrust into uncharted territory amid a range of issues, including high cash burn, acquisitions gone wrong, ballooning losses, mass layoffs, and more. Currently, the company is in the middle of insolvency proceedings.

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