Top HR executives at Whitehat Jr quit as BYJU's plans to shut platform

Beleaguered coding platform WhiteHat Jr has seen an exodus of top HR executives in recent days, including Ashutosh Singh, Director HR Business Partner (HRBP) and HR leader for international markets, reliable sources said on Thursday.

Sources told IANS that Singh's high-profile departure comes after Gaurav Timble, Director HR, and Nimi Rastogi, Global Head -- Talent Acquisition at WhiteHat Jr have also moved on, as BYJU's is set to soon wind up the coding platform for kids, which it acquired for $300 million, as part of restructuring and cost-cutting measures.

All the top HR executives at WhiteHat Jr reported to Pravin Prakash, Chief People Officer at BYJU's.

People close to the development earlier told IANS that the top BYJU's management was in a huddle and meetings were on to appraise the WhiteHat Jr employees about the situation in the next few days.

WhiteHat Jr, which at its peak had more than 8,000 employees across the country, now has around 1,300-14,00 employees left at its offices in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

The discussions at the very top at BYJU's have happened to shut down the WhiteHat Jr brand which has faced severe criticism in the past.

BYJU's, however, had said in a statement it has no plans of shutting WhiteHat Jr down.

"We are merely optimising it for organic and efficient growth. We remain fully committed to delivering world-class educational experiences and solutions that empower students to achieve their full potential," the company spokesperson had said.

The company said that it is constantly evaluating and optimising its business operations towards global growth.

"As an ongoing activity, we are actively evaluating all our business units to ensure that they are aligned with our path to profitability," BYJU's said.

BYJU's acquired WhiteHat Jr in July 2020 for nearly $300 million. It reported a massive Rs 1,690 crore loss in the financial year 2021, while its expenses reached Rs 2,175 crore in FY21 -- compared to Rs 69.7 crore in FY20.

In the April-May period last year, over 1,000 of its employees, including teachers which are on contractual basis, and hence not full-time employees, resigned. Later, more WhiteHat Jr employees either moved on their own or were asked to go.

WhiteHat Jr shut its schools division that targeted to take its flagship coding curriculum to 10 lakh school students by the next academic year.

--IANS

na/vd