Published: [October 20, 2026]
StartupFeed Quick Take
- Think & Learn used part of a repaid Rs 160 crore loan from Great Learning to fund the Aakash rights issue
- The loan was unsecured and carried interest of 6.25% a year, with Rs 100 crore due by July 25, 2025 and Rs 60 crore by November 30, 2025
- A September 28, 2026 NCLT order approved the settlement, under which Think & Learn is set to hold about 32% of Aakash
Think & Learn, the bankrupt Bengaluru parent of Byju’s, used part of a loan repaid by Great Learning to subscribe to Aakash’s rights issue.
The Economic Times reported the money trail on Tuesday, citing people aware of the matter. Great Learning was repaying a Rs 160 crore loan from Think & Learn.
A September 28, 2026 order of the National Company Law Tribunal records that part of that money was used. The order approved a settlement between Think & Learn, Aakash, Manipal Education & Medical Group and other parties.
How much reached Think & Learn is not known. Neither is the share of it that went into Aakash.
The stake is the point. Think & Learn is set to hold about 32% of Aakash once the settlement is carried out.
Where the Aakash rights issue money came from
Court papers call the company by its short form, TLPL. Byju’s bought Great Learning in 2021 for about $600 Mn. The upskilling firm later went back to its co-founder, Mohan Krishna Lakhamraju.
The Rs 160 crore loan sat on Great Learning’s books as an unsecured facility. Repaying it put rupees into a company in insolvency with little free cash of its own.
Think & Learn had approval to subscribe to up to Rs 240 crore of the Aakash rights issue, in tranches. It paid about Rs 25 crore in November 2025, using money raised through compulsorily convertible debentures.
That first payment ran into trouble. Aakash held back the allotment of shares, questioning whether the money met FEMA, the Companies Act, 2013 and the rules on external commercial borrowing.
Why the funding route mattered
Aakash’s objection was about the source of the money, not the amount. Its head of legal, Sanjay Garg, set out the position in writing in November 2025.
“the money received by TLPL is in the nature of a loan/debenture”
Sanjay Garg, head of legal, Aakash Educational Services. From Aakash’s note on the share allotment, November 2025.
The argument was that money borrowed from outside India cannot be turned into equity in an Indian company. Aakash said a regulator could later question the issue itself.
The Great Learning repayment was rupee money, paid inside India by a company Byju’s once owned.
Aakash closed a first tranche of Rs 100 crore and signalled a second tranche of Rs 140 crore. Manipal Education & Medical Group put in Rs 58 crore and Beeaar Investco Rs 16 crore in the first round.
The Rs 160 crore loan, in numbers
The terms are specific. The loan was unsecured and carried interest of 6.25% a year.
Rs 100 crore of it fell due for repayment by July 25, 2025. The remaining Rs 60 crore fell due by November 30, 2025.
Think & Learn had also kept a further Rs 90 crore open for Great Learning. That money was never drawn.
Add the two together and the parent of Byju’s was a lender of up to Rs 250 crore to a business it no longer controls.
The second repayment date, November 30, 2025, sits in the same month as the Rs 25 crore paid to Aakash. The public record does not link the two payments.
Aakash stake: from 25.75 percent to about 32 percent
Think & Learn held about 25.75% of Aakash before the rights issue began. The first tranche cut the recorded holding to 10.99%.
Appeals ran up to the Supreme Court. Aakash gave an undertaking to preserve the 25.75% holding while the case was decided.
| Stage | Stake in Aakash | What moved it |
|---|---|---|
| Before the rights issue | About 25.75% | Holding after the 2021 purchase |
| After the first tranche | 10.99% | Rs 25 crore subscription held back |
| Under the settlement | About 32% | Rights shares plus a share transfer |
The settlement ends above the old number. It mixes new rights shares with a transfer of existing shares, and no cash changes hands between the three sides.
The case is CP 46/BB/2025 before the Bengaluru bench. Sunil Kumar Aggarwal and Radhakrishna Sreepada heard it.
On September 24, 2026 the bench held its orders back. It asked for the original power of attorney, proof of stamp duty and written consent from the resolution professional, Shailendra Ajmera of EY.
The matter returned four days later, on September 28, 2026, the tribunal’s cause list for that day shows. Think & Learn went into insolvency in July 2024.
What this means for you: If you are a creditor or an employee chasing dues from Think & Learn, the Aakash stake is the main asset left. Track the final allotment under the settlement, because about 32% of a coaching chain is what any recovery will be measured against.
StartupFeed Insight
The number to watch is not Rs 160 crore. It is the gap between 10.99% and about 32%, which is the whole fight in one line. The bankrupt parent lent up to Rs 250 crore to Great Learning, lost control of that business, then used part of the money coming back to defend its place in Aakash. Insolvency professionals should read the route as closely as the amount: a rupee recovery from an Indian subsidiary does not carry the questions that the earlier money did. Expect the final allotment to be recorded by March 31, 2027, when Aakash closes its next financial year.
By Saraswati Chaubey, Writer
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