Byju’s appoints ex-upGrad chief Arjun Mohan as CEO for int’l business

Edtech major Byju’s has appointed former Grad boss Arjun Mohan as its chief international business officer, according to sources.

Sources told PTI that Byju Raveendran will remain the Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Mrinal Mohit will continue to head the India business.

Byju declined to comment on the development.

Mohan worked with Byju for 11 years as Chief Business Officer before joining Ronnie Screwvala – who was promoted to upGrad – as its Chief Executive Officer in India.

He quit upGrad in December last year.

Byju’s operates in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, the United Kingdom, Brazil and the Middle East, with users in about 100 countries, according to the company’s website.

It owns US-based reading platform Epic and coding site Tynker, which were acquired for $500 million and $200 million, respectively.

Other overseas acquisitions include Singapore-based Byju’s Great Learning for around US$600 million and Austrian math operator GeoGebra for US$100 million.

The development comes as the Bengaluru-based education technology company has seen the resignation of three board members G.V. Ravishankar, Managing Director of Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India), Russell Dresenstock from Prosus, and Vivian Wu from Chan Zuckerberg.

Ravindran, during a call to shareholders, acknowledged the resignation of the board members, but said that the company had not accepted them yet, and information about their resignations had been leaked prematurely.

Byju in June laid off around 1,000 employees as part of a restructuring process, while the company was embroiled in a legal battle with US lenders for a US$1 billion term loan.

The company’s auditor, Deloitte Haskins and Sells, also resigned due to the delay in bringing the new CFO into charge.

In April, the company faced searches by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at its three premises in Bengaluru.