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

Edtech major Byju's has appointed upGrad's former chief Arjun Mohan as its CEO for international business, according to sources.

Byju Raveendran will remain the group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Mrinal Mohit will continue to head the India business, the sources told PTI.

Byju's declined to comment on the development.

Mohan was with Byju's for 11 years as its Chief Business Officer before joining Ronnie Screwvala-promoted upGrad as its India CEO.

He resigned from upGrad in December last year.

Byju's operates in the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, the UK, Brazil, and the Middle East, with users in about 100 countries, according to the company website.

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

Other overseas acquisitions of Byju's include Singapore-based Great Learning for around USD 600 million and Austria's mathematics operator GeoGebra for USD 100 million.

The development comes as the Bengaluru-headquartered edtech company saw the resignation of three board members GV Ravishankar, MD of early-backer Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India), Russell Dreisenstock of Prosus, and Chan Zuckerberg's Vivian Wu.

Raveendran, during a shareholders' call acknowledged the resignation of the board members but said the company has not accepted them yet, and information about their resignation was leaked prematurely.

Byju's in June laid off about 1,000 employees as part of its restructuring process, at a time when the company got involved in a legal battle with lenders in the US for USD 1-billion term loan B.

The company's auditor, Deloitte Haskins and Sells, had also resigned over delays in a new Chief Financial Officer taking charge.

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