Divya Gokulnath

Divya Gokulnath had just graduated with a biotech degree from RV College of Engineering in Bengaluru when she signed up for a GRE prep class.

Her teacher was Byju Raveendran.

She asked so many questions during class breaks that he told her, “You should be teaching.”

She took him up on it.

At 21, she walked into an auditorium with 100 students, many just a couple years younger.

To look older, she wore a saree.

And started teaching math, English, and logical reasoning.

That was in 2008.

Three years later, she co-founded BYJU’S with Byju.

An in-person test prep business.

Then they moved to digital.

By 2015, they had launched BYJU’S – The Learning App.

The goal: Make learning joyful. Make it visual. Make it mobile.

During the pandemic, Dyvia made all BYJU’S content free.

13.5M students signed up in just a few months.

By September 2020, the platform had 70M students and 4.5M paying users.

Along the way, BYJU’S raised billions from top investors.

Chan-Zuckerberg, General Atlantic, Sequoia, Tencent, Tiger Global, and more.

They acquired Osmo (edtech games), WhiteHat Jr. (coding for kids), Epic (digital reading), and Aakash (offline coaching) to go global.

But the journey hasn’t been clean.

In 2024, Byju Raveendran publicly admitted that he had “overestimated the company’s growth.”

BYJU’S, once valued at $22B, was now, in his own words, “worth zero.”

The company was facing insolvency and mounting legal battles over $1B in disputed loans.

Of that, $533M was under dispute. Lenders alleged it had been misused, a claim the founders denied.

Divya spoke out too…

“Lawyers are asking for millions of dollars just to represent us. If we were sitting on $533 million, we’d be in court right now.”

Even as the company went through massive scrutiny, she kept pushing forward.

She’s still teaching. Still speaking. Still building.

She’s written about women in STEM, parenting, and the future of education.

And she’s been named to Forbes Asia’s Power Businesswomen list, Fortune India’s 40 Under 40, and Business Today’s Most Powerful Women.