In a letter to its limited partners last week, investment firm Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India) said it would mark down Byju’s valuation “significantly” in the upcoming reporting cycle, The Economic Times (ET) reported on Wednesday.”The marking down of our investments reflects our lack of visibility into Byju’s up-to-date audited financials and our inability to influence (it) to take corrective measures,” the letter said, as reported by ET.However, no details of the quantum of reduction of the valuation were provided.Peak XV Partners also added that the situation at Byju’s is still developing, and they will continue to evaluate “all available options”.This is the first time investors have externally flagged financial and corporate irregularities at the edtech firm. On Tuesday, another investor, Prosus, said that the executive leadership at Byju’s “regularly disregarded advice and recommendations relating to strategic, operational, legal, and corporate governance matters”.Earlier, three board members decided to step down from their positions at Byju’s, citing governance issues. This included members of Peak XV Partners, Prosus and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.The decision for our director to step down from Byju’s board was taken after it became clear that he was unable to fulfil his fiduciary duty to serve the long-term interests of the company and its stakeholders,” Prosus said.Prosus said Byju’s reporting and governance structures “did not evolve sufficiently for a company of that scale”.Byju’s was last valued at $22 billion. However, Prosus has cut its valuation of the company to $5.1 billion.
