Byju’s was the BCCI’s front-of-shirt sponsor across all men’s and women’s national teams. (Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

Byju’s, the Indian education tech startup and former main sponsor of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) governing body, has entered insolvency proceedings after failing to pay $19 million in sponsorship money owed to the BCCI.

A tribunal in India ruled that the company must enter insolvency over the unpaid debts, with its assets frozen, its board of directors suspended, and an official in charge of running the company in the interim.

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The insolvency ruling comes after multiple rocky fiscal years for the once-prosperous company, which began sponsoring the BCCI in 2019.

Byju’s signed on as the main sponsor of the BCCI five years ago, with its branding taking prominent front-of-shirt placement on India’s men’s and women’s national teams and gaining major sponsorship inventory around its activities including co-branded advertisements.

This sponsorship, understood to be worth around $32.39 million annually, was renewed in 2022 through to the end of 2023 for a further $34 million before its expiry.

However, Byju's has now defaulted on the remaining $19 million owed (prompting the dispute) and may either appeal the tribunal’s ruling or find a way to pay off the outstanding debt to the BCCI in order to end the matter.

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The BCCI released an invitation to tender for a new main partner in June 2023 while the Byju’s deal was still underway, eventually landing on fantasy sports gaming platform Dream11 in a three-year tie-up worth a reported $14.55 million annually.

Other significant BCCI commercial partners include adidas, IDFC First Bank, SBI Life, and Atomberg.