Beleaguered edtech company Byju’s India CEO Arjun Mohan has stepped down, ten months after moving to the company from rival upGrad. Founder Byju Raveendran will take over Mohan’s role.
Raveendran will be taking a more hands-on role in spearheading daily operations of the company as a part of the rejig, a Byju's statement said.
Mohan will, however, serve in an external advisory role, the statement added.
The decision comes amid a slew of issues at Byju’s including layoffs, delayed salary payments, legal tussles with investors amid other things.
To be sure, Byju’s is stuck in a dispute with its investors over a recent rights issue that saw it raising capital at a post-money valuation of $225 million, about 99% lower than its highest derived valuation of $22 billion.
The National Company Law Tribunal directed Byju’s to not use the capital, which then sought to secure an alternative line of credit to pay salaries, amid a major cash crunch.
Byju’s also said it is consolidating its entire business into three divisions: learning app, online classes & tuitions and test preparations, to streamline its operations.
All these units will be run independently by separate leaders. However, the company did not specify any further names.
The heads would likely be internal executives and no external leaders may be roped in.
“This reorganisation marks the start of BYJU'S 3.0 - a leaner and more agile organisation ready to quickly adapt to evolving market dynamics, especially in the realm of hyper-personalised education,” said Byju Raveendran, founder and group CEO.
“By focussing on our core strengths with three specialised business units, we will unlock new growth opportunities while continuing to focus on profitability,” added Raveendran. He takes over the operational role after four years of focussing on strategic roles, including capital raise and global expansion.
Prior to Mohan, who was Byju’s chief business officer for 11 years until 2022, Mrinal Mohit, a founding employee, was leading the business.
Byju's backers include marquee private equity and venture capital investors such as BlackRock, Prosus (previously Naspers Ventures), CPP Investments, General Atlantic, Tiger Global, Qatar Investment Authority, Bond Capital, Silver Lake, Sofina, Verlinvest, Tencent, Sands Capital Management, Alkeon Capital Management, Edelweiss, and 360 One.
