Byju’s, the world’s most useful edtech startup, has reduce its valuation ask to $250 million in a rights concern it launched Monday because the Indian agency works to handle its working capital wants. The startup is trying to elevate $200 million within the rights concern, a capital it stated is “important to forestall any additional worth impairment.”

The startup is resetting its valuation to “subsequent to nothing” within the rights concern, the place all present buyers have a possibility to take part, in accordance with a supply conversant in the matter. If Byju’s succeeds in elevating $200 million, the post-money valuation of the startup shall be within the vary of $220 million to $250 million, a 99% drop from the $22 billion worth that the startup had attained in 2022, in accordance with the supply, who requested anonymity sharing nonpublic data.

Byju’s founder Byju Raveendran instructed shareholders in a letter Monday that he and different founders of the edtech group have invested $1.1 billion into the Bengaluru-headquartered startup within the final 18 months and search continued assist from the buyers. “We have now made immense private sacrifices for the sake of the corporate. We have now spent our lives constructing this firm and are fervent believers in its mission,” Raveendran wrote within the letter, seen by TechCrunch.

The rights concern comes as Byju’s appears to safe capital amid a extreme funding crunch. The startup, which spent $2.5 billion buying greater than a dozen agency in 2021 and 2022, has raised greater than $5 billion in fairness and debt from backers together with Peak XV, Lightspeed, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, BlackRock, UBS, Prosus Ventures and B Capital. Byju’s stated in a press release that it expects the rights concern to shut in 30 days.

“It has been 21 months since our final exterior capital elevate, throughout which we’ve reduce our burn and labored to turn into a lean group, razor-focused on execution. The board believes it’s crucial that the corporate raises capital with a purpose to create a glidepath to ship sturdy shareholder worth,” Raveendran wrote within the letter.

Byju’s has been chasing for brand spanking new funding for almost a yr. The startup was in closing levels to elevate about $1 billion final yr, however the talks derailed after the auditor Deloitte and three key board members give up the startup. As an alternative, Byju’s ended up elevating lower than $150 million in that spherical from Davidson Kempner and needed to repay the investor the total dedicated quantity after making a technical default in a separate $1.2 billion time period mortgage B.

The brand new funding deliberation follows BlackRock chopping the worth of its holding in Byju’s, slashing the implied valuation of the Indian startup to about $1 billion, in accordance with disclosures made by the asset supervisor earlier this month.

Byju’s was making ready to go public in early 2022 by means of a SPAC deal that may have valued the corporate at as much as $40 billion. Nonetheless, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February despatched markets downward, forcing Byju’s to place its IPO plans on maintain, in accordance with a supply conversant in the matter. As market circumstances worsened, so too did the enterprise outlook for Byju’s.