- Governance, Risk & Compliance
- 3 min read
Exclusive: Byju’s India CEO Arjun Mohan resigns, founder Raveendran to return to helm daily ops
Byju Raveendran returning to the top of daily affairs after nearly four years and is of significance as as a group of Byju’s investors voted in February to oust him as CEO of the company in an extraordinary general meeting.Arjun Mohan, CEO for Byju’s India and a confidante of founder Byju Raveendran, is leaving the firm in little over six months after taking over the role, sources aware of the matter said. This is a significant top-level departure, deepening the crisis at the troubled edtech firm when Raveendran is fighting with investors over multiple issues.
Raveendran, sources said, will now take over control of day-to-day operations at India business – housed under Think & Learn – following Mohan’s departure. He would be returning to the top of daily affairs after nearly four years. He may make an announcement internally on the latest changes, according to current plans. Mohan replaced Mrinal Mohit last year. Both of them were former students of Raveendran in the early days of the founder’s teaching common admission test (CAT).
Mohan told Raveendran last week about his resignation and has put in his papers, people briefed on the matter said. He will still continue to be an advisor to Byju’s, for now.
Mohan, who joined Byju's in September and led the business restructuring and clean up of a large employee base and was leading the Byju’s 2.0 business plan. He was also closely involved in daily affairs of Byju’s-owned brick-and-mortar coaching firm Aakash–a key asset for the edtech group. He was previously Byju’s chief business officer and later joined Ronnie Screwvala’s UpGrad as India CEO for about two years.
Mohan, who was consulting with Byju’s before formally joining the company, is leaving the company after having cut the workforce significantly at Think & Learn–which now has just around 5,000-6,000 employees left. Majority of the employees are yet to be paid pending salaries for the last two months and there is a churn among senior executives who are leaving the company amid lack of capital infusion at the firm. Mohan led one of the major job cut exercises soon after joining the company to cut costs significantly to address the cash crunch.
Raveendran’s plans
Following Mohan’s departure, Raveendran plans to essentially consolidate the India business in three divisions –App & AI, test preparation and tuition centres – according to people briefed on the plans.
Recently, Byju’s reduced the total number of tuition centres to about 250 and vacated many office spaces across the country and in Bengaluru–its headquarters.
Raveendran has been borrowing capital from several investors to clear staff salaries. The company has on multiple occasions issued statements saying it’s not being able to use the rights issue capital because of the investor battle at National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Bengaluru. The tribunal has directed Byju’s to keep the proceeds from the $200 million rights issue in a separate escrow account.
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