Following the pandemic tech boom, edtech company Byju’s was India’s most valuable start-up in 2022, worth an estimated $22bn.

The company, founded by a charismatic former maths teacher Byju Raveendran, sold tutoring services to millions of parents seeking to prepare their children for India’s brutally competitive school entrance exams.

After winning investment from the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, BlackRock and Dutch tech investor Prosus, Byju’s went on a global acquisition spree and became a sponsor of the Fifa World Cup in Qatar and the country’s cricket team.

But after central banks raised interest rates following the Covid-19 pandemic, the cheap money dried up. The value of the company plunged, and investors were forced to write off stakes worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Creditors of Byju’s are now in US courts to locate almost half of a $1.2bn loan, while the company fights insolvency proceedings in India over delayed national cricket authority sponsorship dues. The Qatar Investment Authority has also launched a case in India’s tech hub of Bengaluru, where Byju’s is based, to recover more than $200mn from Raveendran.

Byju’s has been unable to access its bank accounts and pay salaries as a result of the Indian legal proceedings, Raveendran said in a company-wide email in August shared with the Financial Times. “I have felt like a man screaming into a hurricane of hurdles,” Raveendran said. “When we regain control, your salaries will be paid promptly, even if that means raising more personal debt.”

Byju’s, which is now worth $120mn according to data provider Tracxn, has denied wrongdoing. Raveendran told the FT that his company no longer had access to capital and the entirety of the $1.2bn term loan at the heart of the sprawling legal battle with its creditors had been spent.

He said they had not been able to pay their lawyers in a Delaware court case and that what he described as the company’s “strategy” of trying to conceal money from creditors “has not gone right”. Raveendran added: “I will fight it out because we will win eventually.”

The company’s legal battles from Delaware to Bengaluru have shone a harsh light on start-up corporate governance standards, said Shriram Subramanian, founder of Bengaluru-based proxy advisor InGovern Research Services. “It’s a big failure of corporate governance from multiple perspectives,” he said.

Byju’s overdue accounts released in January showed losses almost doubling to nearly $1bn in the year to March 2022. While the platform still has about 7mn paying users, the number of employees — more than half of them teachers — has plunged from about 80,000 at its peak to about 27,000 today, Raveendran said.

Subramanian questioned why investors tolerated Byju’s delayed filing of accounts and pointed out that the company did not have a chief financial officer for 16 months between 2021 and 2023.

“The Byju’s saga has a general resonance,” Subramanian added. “There is an element of caution and more scrutiny of start-ups, investors are expecting more due diligence and a path to profitability. No more is there a blind throwing of money.”

Total annual funding to Indian start-ups was $32bn last year, less than half of the 2020 peak of $67.3bn, according to Tracxn.

“The different layers of scandal that have draped this company for the last couple of years create a very complex cocktail of issues,” said Nirgunan Tiruchelvam, a Singapore-based analyst at Aletheia Capital. “It’s not good for the tech ecosystem in India.”

A lawsuit launched in Delaware by a group of more than 100 creditors to recover $533mn of the $1.2bn syndicated loan to Byju’s secured in November 2021 has revealed disorganisation at the edtech company.

Earlier this year, Raveendran’s brother Riju struggled to explain to a US judge that he did not know the whereabouts of $533mn of the loan. Riju, who was the sole director of US-based Byju’s Alpha, a company created to receive loans, said in May: “I really don’t know where the money is.”

Riju, who lives with Raveendran and his wife Divya Gokulnath, the company’s husband-and-wife co-founders, in Dubai’s affluent Emirates Hills community, said he had sent emails asking them where the money was.

Raveendran said Riju had not lied as he had restricted information to him.

Riju’s attempts to find the funds “were tepid at best” and his “testimony lacks all credibility”, said US bankruptcy judge John Dorsey at the May hearing. The court found him in contempt and in July imposed a fine of $10,000 a day until the money was located.

“I have struggled in my own mind whether we are seeing ineptitude . . . or we’re seeing something more nefarious,” said Ravi Shankar, a Kirkland & Ellis advocate acting for Glas Trust, an agency representing more than 100 Byju’s creditors. “Two brothers doing whatever it can take to salvage a crumbling empire.”

After Byju’s Alpha was accused by the creditors of default, they removed Riju as sole director of the company in 2023 and installed Timothy Pohl, a restructuring expert. Last month, Delaware’s Supreme Court affirmed that default.

Pohl unearthed bank accounts that showed transfers signed off by Riju to a little-known Florida-based hedge fund Camshaft Capital. It was set up in 2020 and registered with the address of an IHOP pancake restaurant in Miami by then-23-year-old William Morton, a high school dropout with no investment qualifications.

In a separate Florida suit, the creditors’ lawyers allege Morton splurged on Ferrari, Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce cars after the Byju’s transfer, as well as a condo with an ocean view with a listed monthly rent of $29,000.

Morton’s lawyers said Camshaft “vigorously denies” the allegations. In June, they told the Delaware court that millions of dollars in fees he received in the deal were “not with us today”.

Earlier this year, it emerged in court that Camshaft transferred the funds to OCI, a British company. The creditors’ lawyers are now seeking documents about the transfer in UK courts. Morton and OCI did not respond to a request for comment. Raveendran said Camshaft had not lost the company money and declined to comment on OCI.

Riju’s lawyers at the end of July said in court that funds were spent on goods and services for Byju’s and “not for an improper purpose”. Byju’s has launched a counter-lawsuit in New York against the lenders, accusing them of unfairly accelerating the loan terms and negotiating in “bad faith”.

Raveendran added “there has never been any fraud” and “not a single dollar” of the loan was transferred to India or personal accounts.

Byju’s faces more legal challenges in India. The Qatar Investment Authority — the country’s sovereign wealth fund, which invested in the company and loaned Raveendran $250mn in 2022 — is fighting in a Karnataka court to claim back more than $200mn from him. Raveendran declined to comment on the QIA case.

Byju’s was also pushed into bankruptcy proceedings in India by the country’s national cricket authority over unpaid sponsorship dues. Although the company settled the case in August, India’s Supreme Court stayed the settlement order after the US creditors alleged Byju’s might have used money from their loan to pay the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Byju’s has denied the allegation.

The lenders know that time is not on their side. Earlier this year, they said the cost of recovering the funds could make “finding the money nothing more than a Pyrrhic victory”.

Raveendran said Byju’s would pay back the lenders. “If they have the patience, come work with me,” he said. “We will make a comeback.”

Swiss watch exports have fallen this year, but one market is showing strong growth: India. Exports to the country rose 20 per cent in value, year on year, in the first seven months of 2024 to SFr139.5mn ($165mn), compared with a 2.4 per cent fall globally. And that export value represents a 41.4 per cent increase on the same period in 2022 — the largest rise recorded by the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry for any market, over such a timescale.

Now, a trade deal is set to make watch exports even easier. In March, India signed an agreement with the European Free Trade Association to phase out custom duties on Swiss watches (about 20 per cent) within seven years and give improved protection around the use of the terms “Swiss” or “Switzerland”.

India is, in many ways, an ideal watch market. It was the fastest-growing major economy in last month’s World Bank update, and one in which the number of millionaires (in US dollars) will rise 22 per cent between 2023 and 2028, to 1,061,463, according to the latest UBS Global Wealth Report. The Deloitte Swiss Watch Industry Study 2023 flagged the country as the “next big growth market”, and found that 94 per cent of Indian consumers wear a watch (in the US, it is 79 per cent).

“As the population is getting more wealthy and developing, and the luxury market is exponentially growing compared with the consumer market, there’s an upgrade [in the watches people buy],” says Karine Szegedi, consumer industry and fashion and luxury lead at Deloitte Switzerland, and the study’s co-author.

Watchmakers are expanding their retail presence. IWC opened its first boutique in India, at Jio Mall in Mumbai, last November. Then Breitling launched boutiques in Chennai and Pune earlier this year, having opened its first Indian store in Hyderabad in 2023. It plans to have boutiques in each of the country’s top eight to 10 cities.

The luxury market is growing compared with the consumer market . . . there’s an upgrade in timepieces people buy

This focus comes amid a slump in sales in China, the second-largest export market for Swiss watches. There, the value of exports fell 23.2 per cent, year on year, between January and July, to SFr1,269.5mn. “We’re being asked if [India] will be offsetting the maybe softer results in China,” says Szegedi. “Not yet, because it’s an immature market . . . We believe that now, as well, with the EFTA agreement, you have to enter it to test it and see how the market responds to your brands.”

Gerald Charles started working with Ethos Watches, an Indian retailer, in Delhi and Mumbai last November after noticing rising demand from rich Indians who were travelling to, or had homes in, Dubai. It launched in two further locations, Bengaluru and Kochi, last month. Federico Ziviani, Gerald Charles chief executive, says there will be a fifth opening next year — bringing the brand, which he says makes 1,500 watches a year, to capacity for the country .

He says the Indian market, where the brand’s emerald green watches are popular, is robust because it is driven by internal demand. “Thinking about what happened during Covid, where travelling was blocked, only the strong local markets performed well,” he says. “So that’s why it’s so important to be in India, rather than selling to Indian collectors from abroad, because this creates a service to them, because they have the watch right at [their] doorstep. [It also] creates robustness in case of any geopolitical or economic changes.”

Ziviani says the challenge in a country of 1.4bn people is getting the watch “on the right wrist”. “We have the advantage that the Gerald Charles watch . . . is very polarising,” he says. “You hate it or love it . . . so there is a strong component in the client choosing us.”

Cricket — a sport beloved in India — is influential in growing brand awareness. Panerai previously had former India captain MS Dhoni as an ambassador and collaborated with him on two limited edition timepieces exclusive to the Indian market in 2019. Mohit Hemdev, Panerai brand manager for India, says this “really helped the brand get the right kind of visibility in the market”.

Jean-Marc Pontroué, chief executive of Panerai, says exposure through cricket and the “evolution” of India meant the time was right for expansion. “You see the number of planes this country is ordering, the new facilities built, new industries growing — that is contributing to the development of the country, which creates a growing affluent customer group,” he says. However, he says Panerai’s growth will depend on “the speed of the luxury industry” — such as the development of malls.

Panerai opens its fourth India boutique, in Bengaluru, this month. The brand also has 10 points of sale across six cities with partners including TimeVallée, the Richemont-owned multi-brand retailer. Pontroué says Panerai has tripled its business in India since 2018. “It’s by far the fastest-growing nationality we see appearing more and more with knowledge of luxury watches,” he says.

Pontroué says that, while India has a long association with jewellery, the more recent appetite for high-end watches is driven by interest in gold, jewellery watches, and Switzerland. Hundreds of Bollywood films have been at least partially shot in Switzerland, against scenic backdrops such as the Alps. “[For] a lot of Indians, their first or second European destination to visit becomes Switzerland,” says Hemdev.

Rado, which has worked with Indian Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan since 2011, took on British Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif as an ambassador last October to target female customers. Adrian Bosshard, Rado chief executive, says there has been an “overproportion increase” in its women’s watch segment in India this year and last.

Other brands are seeking to attract clients with special releases. Carl F Bucherer launched a Heritage BiCompax Annual Hometown limited edition dedicated to New Delhi, featuring city landmarks engraved on the case back, with Ethos Watches in June. Raymond Weil, which has traded in India since the early 1980s, launched the Freelancer Ganges India limited edition last October to celebrate 20 years of its own collaboration with Ethos.

Rado saw India overtake China as its largest market for sales about two years ago, says Bosshard. The brand has 33 boutiques in India and more than 200 other points of sale. Bosshard says Rado has built “customer confidence”, which helps as Indian consumers “are very cautious to have value for money”. For this reason, the brand’s ceramic watches are popular, he says, because their “scratch resistance” means they have “a long-term beauty on your wrist”.

An informal survey of about 100 partners and directors from Deloitte Consulting in India in July found that, while Rolex was the most recognised Swiss watch brand, it was followed by Swatch Group houses Omega, Tissot and Rado, respectively, showcasing the early investment that group made in the market. Popular high-end brands, including Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and Richard Mille, did not feature in this top 10 for brand recognition in India.

Bosshard compares the situation in India to what he saw in China 20 years ago. “Purchasing power is growing and, of course, in this kind of environment people want to celebrate themselves.”

One opportunity identified in the Deloitte Swiss Watch Industry spotlight on India, from July, is to tap into wedding gifting. It found 40 per cent of Indians planning to buy a watch within 12 months would do so for a present, compared with 27 per cent globally.

Deloitte’s 2023 study predicted India would be in the top 10 of Swiss watch export markets within a decade. It was 22nd in July. However, Bosshard would not be surprised if this happened within seven, or even five, years.

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A short walk from Goldsmiths’ Hall in the City of London is the site of one of the most extraordinary hoards of jewellery and gemstones ever found. It was uncovered in 1912 beneath a row of buildings on Cheapside owned by the Goldsmiths’ Company. Among the pieces were some of the rarest examples of enamelled jewellery of the 16th and 17th centuries — gold chains embellished with enamelled floral links, as well as enamelled rings and pendants.

They were examples of a technique of fusing finely ground glass to metal and other materials that goes back to ancient Greece and is still being practised and reimagined by contemporary jewellers. And it is this tradition that is being celebrated at the ongoing Goldsmiths’ Fair, in a special exhibition to accompany the 2024 curated selection of some of the finest designers and contemporary metalsmiths working in the UK.

The exhibition, in the Front Hall, which you pass through on the way to the selling fair, contains examples of the different ways enamelling techniques have been used in jewellery and hollowware since the 1960s — all drawn from the extensive Goldsmiths’ Company collection.

The Dark Crimson Underwing Moth pin (2021) — by Fred Rich, a veteran master of traditional enamelling techniques who works from a studio in East Sussex — is made with gold wire just 0.05mm thick, using a technique he calls “micro-cloisonné”. It is a relatively small piece among a glorious collection of exhibits that include rings, neckpieces and bracelets, as well as cups, beakers and bowls, but it holds the attention. As does the Sheila McDonald bird brooch (2011) — a quieter but no less memorable example of a different approach to enamelling.

A set of three floral brooches (2017) in enamelled silver, by Jonathan Boyd — an artist-jeweller who is also head of applied art at the Royal College of Art in London — show a darker, more modern intensity that represents a different approach to enamelling.

From the Front Hall the grand staircase leads up to the main rooms, where this year’s fair exhibitors are set up and where, in the second and final week of the event, there are interesting and covetable examples of the enameller’s art.

Among them is Yinglong Li, known for his mastery of plique-à-jour, where the enamel is applied in cells. It is similar to cloisonné, but without the backing, and is rather like stained glass. His recent ground­breaking research for his PhD at Birmingham City University’s School of Jewellery uses enamel as a bonding agent, as well as a decorative device, through the use of lasers.

He calls his collection of brooches made using this technique MTG, inspired by “mind the gap” alerts on the London Underground. A silver grid of balls are connected by yellow, green, blue and red enamel that he describes as creating a “special shadow effect”. His designs are an attempt to integrate eastern and western cultures, while pushing the boundaries of what enamel can do.

Li’s eastern influences stem from China. Another exhibiting jeweller, Jane Moore, who also puts enamel at the heart of her work, finds her inspiration in Japan. Both countries have a tradition of fine, decorative enamelling going back centuries. “Simple traditional Japanese artefacts and textiles embellished with tiny floral motifs” have been the inspiration for her “decades of practice”, she says. Moore uses traditional enamel techniques alongside photo etching, laser cutting, and fine enamel transfers. The results are pieces featuring a rainbow of translucent enamel “jewels”, given life by textures and patterns created in their silver backing.

Although Emma Louise Wilson finds her inspiration in the seascapes of the Aberdeen coastline, the delicate watercolour effects she creates for her silver and enamel brooches, rings and bowls have a Japanese feel to them, too. Through her jewellery and other pieces, she is trying to capture the feelings of “beauty and quiet solitude” these moody vistas of Scotland evoke. There is a timelessness to her work.

Enamel is all about colour and the most vibrant examples at this year’s fair are from Alice Cicolini, who has used traditional vitreous enamel in her designs, inspired by India, Persia, and the Silk Road. She has also led the way in reimagining the use of enamel in contemporary jewellery. She spent the past few years exploring the potential of “cold” lacquer enamel with Stanislav Reymer, her London-based enamel master.

“Stanislav is a tinkering genius and has developed a series of enamel techniques with me using this material,” says Cicolini. “I have never entirely understood the received wisdom that vitreous is a ‘high craft’ and lacquer enamel is in some way ‘lesser’ — it’s really about who uses it and what they choose to do with the material.”

Because lacquer enamel is not heat-fired, the colours do not merge together and that allows her to emulate the swirling pools of colour that are the distinguishing characteristic of marbled end papers that feature in some of her work.

The opportunity to play with colours, and merge and combine freely, that “cold” enamel offers, is also seen in the work of artist and jeweller Inca Starzinsky. Her Float collection is a colour-drenched celebration of childhood dreams, whose melting illusion gives the impression of floating shapes — some organic, others forming words — that belie the satisfying solidity of the brass and silver brooches, rings and bangles when you pick them up.

As with Cicolini’s work, colour is everything. Cicolini also amps up the impact of enamel with gemstones and this is also the case with Ingo Henn, whose 18ct white gold Radiance bangle is one of his standout pieces: alive with swirls of pink, red and blue enamel. For him, “rare coloured gems always form the focal point” and, in the case of the Radiance bangle, it is a shining rubellite cabochon stone.

Goldsmiths’ Fair runs to October 6

In his letter “EU focus on protecting the consumer is stifling innovation” (September 30) Danny Leipziger is correct to highlight the importance of lowering barriers to entry and improving the functioning of the EU’s single market. But he could not be more wrong about the EU’s regulatory focus on consumer protection. It is the combination of high consumer protection standards and competition to meet the demands of millions of consumers across Europe that give companies the incentive to increase the quality of their products, improve their efficiency and deliver innovation.

Large companies, including those in Big Tech, are continuing to pursue a vigorous campaign against EU legislation to protect consumers’ interests like the Digital Markets Act precisely because it aims to lower barriers for new market entrants, bringing more competition and ensuring that innovation is not dictated and controlled by a few powerful companies.

Agustín Reyna
Director-General, European consumers’ organisation BEUC, Brussels, Belgium