BYJU’S’ US bets Epic, Tynker sold for pennies on the dollar

Epic!, a digital reading platform for children, and Tynker, a K-12 coding platform, were acquired by BYJU’S for $500 million and $200 million, respectively, but were sold at steep discounts of 81% and 99% off their acquisition values.

Jun 10, 2025 - 10:35

BYJU’S’ US bets Epic, Tynker sold for pennies on the dollar

For BYJU’S, once the poster child of the Indian startup ecosystem, troubles continue as a group of term loan lenders have sold two US-based companies it had acquired in 2021 in a bid to recover funds, while the edtech firm battles insolvency.

The two US-based companies—Epic!, a digital reading platform for children, and Tynker, a K-12 coding platform—were acquired by BYJU’S for $500 million and $200 million, respectively, but were sold at steep discounts of 81% and 99% off their acquisition values.

Epic!, BYJU’S largest US subsidiary, was sold to China’s TAL Education Group for $95 million, while Tynker was purchased by US-based coding education platform CodeHS for just $2.2 million, with both transactions finalised through an auction in a Delaware bankruptcy court, as reported by EdWeek Market Brief.

US Bankruptcy Court Judge Brendan Shannon approved the sales of both Tynker and Epic! at a hearing held on May 20, the report noted.

YourStory has reached out to BYJU’S for comments.

BYJU’S, which had built its education empire through numerous acquisitions fueled by investor money, acquired US-based Osmo for $120 million in 2019, followed by Epic! and Tynker in 2021. These three US-based companies served as guarantors for BYJU’S $1.2 billion Term Loan B (TLB).

Back in 2021, BYJU’S US arm, Alpha, Inc, received the proceeds from the $1.2 billion TLB. The following year, Alpha transferred $533 million of those funds to Camshaft Capital Fund, a hedge fund founded by William Morton.

In 2022, BYJU’S Alpha defaulted on its credit agreement shortly after receiving the Term Loans, and BYJU’S, along with Byju Raveendran and Riju Ravindran, allegedly began a series of fraudulent transfers and later acknowledged the defaults through multiple amendments and forbearances.

Later that year, creditors seized control of BYJU’S Alpha and placed it under Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

In June 2024, certain term loan holders and their agent filed petitions in the Delaware Bankruptcy Court to initiate involuntary Chapter 11 proceedings against three US-based BYJU’S subsidiaries.

In April 2025, BYJU’S Alpha filed a lawsuit in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on behalf of the Term Loan lenders, accusing founder Byju Raveendran, co-founder Divya Gokulnath, and advisor Anita Kishore of orchestrating a scheme to conceal and misappropriate the $533 million in loan proceeds.

Meanwhile, BYJU’S is facing bankruptcy proceedings in both India and the US, as the Bengaluru-based edtech firm battles a growing number of legal challenges on multiple fronts.

Edited by Jyoti Narayan