WhiteHat Jr founder Karan Bajaj quits a year after acquisition by Byju’s

Bengaluru: Karan Bajaj, the founder and chief executive officer of WhiteHat Jr, has quit the Byju’s-owned company, a year after the online coding tutor was acquired by India’s biggest edtech startup.

The development was announced by Byju’s founder and CEO Byju Raveendran in an email to employees. “Having more than exceeded all our mutually outlined goals for the first year, Karan is now ready, as we had mutually decided at the time of acquisition, to progress to the next chapter of his life,” the email read.

ET has seen a copy of the email.


WhiteHat Jr was acquired by Byju’s in a $300-million deal a year ago.

Raveendran said that Bajaj has exceeded his expectations. “We’ve expanded successfully to Brazil, Mexico, Australia, UK — beyond India and the US — launched very creative new courses in math and music,” he said in the email.

Trupti Mukker, head of customer experience and delivery, is expected to take the helm as WhiteHat Jr CEO. “Trupti Mukker, whom you know well as head of customer experience and delivery, will lead the organisation, ably supported by the extremely strong leadership team that Karan and I have set in place,” Raveendran’s email read.

Bajaj said that he is thankful to the investors and the ecosystem for supporting him so far.

“As I move on to new paths, my deep gratitude to the 17,000+ employees and teachers who weren’t a part of my life just two years ago," he said in a Linkedin post on Wednesday. "Thank you for trusting me through thick and thin. I know almost each one of you and will always remember you very, very warmly."

Byju’s did not respond to ET’s queries immediately.

The ads controversy
Soon after it was acquired by Byju's, WhiteHat Jr launched an aggressive advertising campaign. ET reported that it spent around Rs 15 crore on digital media advertisements. The Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) asked it to pull down the ads because they made unsubstantiated claims, according to reports.

In November 2020, WhiteHat Jr filed defamation lawsuits against two of its most vocal critics—software engineer Pradeep Poonia and angel investor Aniruddha Malpani—and sought $2.6 million and $1.9 million in damages, respectively. In May this year, WhiteHat Jr withdrew its defamation case against Poonia.

Byju's Acquisitions
Byju’s has spent more than $2 billion in the last six months to acquire four companies, including offline tutor Aakash Institute for nearly $1 billion. Last week, it announced the takeover of professional and higher education platform Great Learning in a $600 million cash-and-stock deal. It has also acquired smaller rival Toppr for $150 million and is eyeing test prep startup Gradeup now, sources said.

The edtech decacorn is valued at $16.5 billion.