Qatar Investment Authority is pursuing enforcement of a $235 million arbitral award against Byju Raveendran in Indian courts, escalating pressure on the embattled founder of the struggling education technology company as he faces mounting legal challenges globally.

The sovereign wealth fund’s subsidiary, Qatar Holding LLC, filed a petition in Karnataka High Court seeking to enforce a $235 million Singapore arbitration award issued on July 14, plus accumulated interest exceeding $14 million. The total obligation now surpasses $249 million, with interest compounding daily at 4 percent annually since February 2024, accoding to QIA.

Qatar Holding is requesting the Indian court recognize the arbitral award as a court decree and grant injunctions against asset transfers by Raveendran and his investment vehicle, Byju’s Investments Pte. Ltd.

Loan default triggers legal battle

The dispute stems from a September 2022 financing agreement where Qatar Holding provided $150 million to Raveendran’s Singapore-based investment company to help acquire shares in Aakash Educational Services Ltd., an Indian test-preparation company. Raveendran personally guaranteed the loan.

Qatar Holding alleges Raveendran breached the agreement by transferring the Aakash shares to another entity he controlled, violating express restrictions in the financing terms. After repeated defaults, Qatar terminated the agreement and demanded immediate repayment of $235 million.

The Qatar fund initiated Singapore arbitration proceedings in March 2024 after both Raveendran and his investment company failed to repay the loan. An emergency arbitrator issued a global asset freeze in March 2024, later upheld by Singapore’s High Court, before the final award was rendered in July.

Qatar Holding’s earlier attempt to freeze Raveendran’s assets in Indian courts met with limited success. In April, Karnataka High Court rejected the fund’s petition for injunctions, ruling that Qatar should seek interim relief from the Singapore arbitral tribunal rather than Indian courts. However, the court maintained existing protective orders for three months.

The August enforcement petition represents Qatar’s renewed effort to recover funds through India’s judicial system following the definitive Singapore ruling.

Global legal pressure mounts

Byju Raveendran faces intensifying international legal challenges beyond the Qatar dispute. A U.S. bankruptcy court in Delaware has held him in civil contempt for repeatedly failing to comply with court orders demanding disclosure of assets and documents in ongoing bankruptcy proceedings related to Byju’s U.S. subsidiary, Byju’s Alpha Inc., imposing a $10,000 daily fine until compliance.

Legal filings by lenders allege that $533 million of a $1.2 billion term loan was diverted to obscure hedge funds and entities without proper disclosure, citing court assertions that Raveendran remarked the missing funds were “somewhere the lenders will never find.”

Byju’s, once valued at $22 billion and India’s most valuable startup, is now grappling with mounting insolvency challenges amid investor exits, delayed financial reporting, and several creditor litigations that highlight management failures.

The Qatar Investment Authority, an investor in Byju’s during funding rounds in 2019 and 2022, has seen its relationship sour with the company and is pursuing multiple legal proceedings globally to hold Raveendran and his entities accountable, leveraging international asset freezes as part of efforts to maximize recovery.