Lido Learning offers to make partial payment of dues toemployees

Lido Learning has sent full and final documents to all employees, including almost 300 contractual teachers and 100 academic managers, after a week of filing for bankruptcy. 

The edtech company has offered to cover two-thirds salary dues for employees with CTC (cost to company) below ₹6 lakh and one-third for employees with CTC above ₹6 lakh. Around three months of salary (June 2022 to August 2022 ) is pending for most employees.

The full and final (FNF) documents were sent to employees on September 15. The employees have been asked to sign the documents by Saturday (September 17), and the company will process payments next week. 

According to the FNF document reviewed by BusinessLine, the employees’ contract is considered ended because of their resignation and on signing this document, they will have no further claims against Lido Learning. 

Speaking to BusinessLine on the condition of anonymity, an affected employee of Lido Learning said, “We are asking Lido executives for clarification on the FNF documents but none of them is responding. We are asking them about our remaining payment and TDS deductions since April but nobody is ready to reply. We are only connected through WhatsApp messages, where again the executives are not replying.” 

Another employee said, “parents have tutors’ personal numbers and they ask tutors about the extended break in classes. How are we supposed to tell parents that their money has been wasted? How do we tell them now?”

Earlier in July, Lido Leaning CEO Sahil Sheth had told employees that the company is in the process of closing a strategic investment from Reliance. This was cited as the reason for the delay in salary payments to these employees. 

Then again on September 8, when the news of Lido Learning’s bankruptcy was out, the company told employees that payments will be initiated for everyone next week. “We have been dependent on the acquirer for next steps on this and have finally got clarity now,” a company-wide email from Lido HR noted on September 8. 

However, a week later, the employees were asked to accept partial payment of their dues, again with no clarity on the exact date of payment. BusinessLine queries sent to Sahil Sheth did not elicit a response till the time of going press. 

MCA filings made by Lido Learning said the company has failed to repay debts to former employees, vendors, customers, lenders and creditors. Anil Drolia has been proposed as the Interim Corporate Resolution Professional. 

Founded in 2019, Lido Learning offered online classes in Maths, Science, Coding and English, for students from KG to Grade 12. The company had raised $24 million in total funding across multiple funding rounds. Some investors of Lido Learning include Ronnie Screwvala’s Unilazer Ventures, BAce Capital and Picus Capital among others.

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