Arjun Mohan, the former CEO of UpGrad, has been appointed by Byju's, a key player in the edtech industry, as its CEO for international operations. Mrinal Mohit will continue to lead the India business, and Byju Raveendran will remain the group's chief executive officer. Byju's chose not to comment on the situation. Mohan was as Chief Business Officer at Byju's for 11 years before joining Ronnie Screwvala-awarded upGrad as its India CEO.
In December of the previous year, he left upGrad. According to the website of the business, Byju's has users in around 100 different countries and operates in the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, the UK, Brazil, and the Middle East. It is the owner of the US-based reading platform Epic and the online learning platform Tynker, which were bought for USD 500 million and USD 200 million, respectively. Byju has also purchased companies abroad, including Singapore's Great Learning for over USD 600 million and Austria's GeoGebra for USD 100 million.
Three board members of the Bengaluru-based edtech company—GV Ravishankar, MD of early investor Peak XV Partners, Russell Dreisenstock of Prosus, and Chan Zuckerberg's Vivian Wu—resigned as a result of this development. The board members' resignation was recognized by Raveendran during a shareholders' call, but he added that the company has not yet accepted them and that the information regarding their resignation was prematurely disclosed.
In June, Byju's made roughly 1,000 layoffs as part of its restructuring process. At the same time, the business was engaged in a legal dispute with US lenders over a USD 1 billion term loan B. Deloitte Haskins and Sells, the company's auditor, also resigned as a result of the delay in the appointment of a new Chief Financial Officer. The Enforcement Directorate conducted searches at the company's three Bengaluru locations in April.