Prosus NV and Peak XV Partners, two of Byju’s largest investors, voted on Friday to remove the company’s founder Raveendran from his position as CEO, intensifying the conflict over the future of the formerly successful online tutoring startup that is struggling to stay in business.
However, the company said in a statement on Friday that Byju’s had rejected the resolutions, which also attempted to remove Byju Raveendran from the board of the business he founded in 2015.

“The resolutions passed during the recently concluded extraordinary general meeting – attended by a small cohort of select shareholders – are invalid and ineffective,” the statement states.

According to a company representative, these resolutions were put to a vote without a legitimate quorum being present, as required by Byju’s Articles of Association, which call for the attendance of at least one founder-director at the meeting. Since his spouse Divya Gokulnath, Byju founder Raveendran, and his brother Riju Raveendran —who make up the board—skipped the meeting, the quorum was never legitimately established, rendering the resolutions null and void, according to the company.

The shareholders’ decision followed a boisterous, long Zoom call for investors and management on Friday, which multiple employees of Byju’s attempted to disrupt, according to two witnesses. Unidentified participants attempted multiple times during the meeting to sabotage the proceedings with whistles and other loud noises.

In order to raise money for employee salaries, Raveendran has pledged his home and those owned by his family members, and some board members have resigned. In order to raise money, it is also offering new stock for sale at a discount of over 90% from its previous funding round.