Arjun Mohan resigns as Byju’s CEO; founder Raveendran takes charge

Arjun Mohan has resigned as CEO of the troubled ed-tech brand Byju’s, a statement issued by the company said on Monday.

Mohan’s decision to quit comes a little over six months from the time he assumed office. While he moves over to an advisory role, the daily operations of the firm will now be handled by the founder of the company, Byju Raveendran. The move comes at a time when the cash crunch-ridden company has seen a drastic fall in business over the recent months.

Mohan had taken over the CEO’s post from Mrinal Mohit in 2023. Incidentally, both Mohan and Mohit have been Raveendran’s ex-students during the days of the founder’s teaching Common Admission Test (CAT).

Raveendran returns to the top post after around four years. He could be making an announcement on significant changes within the company soon. His return comes soon after Byju’s recently reorganised its business structure into three divisions. These are the Learning App, Test-prep, and Online Classes and Tuition Centres. Each division, it was announced, is to have a specific leader to run the business, in order to focus on maximum profitability and adaptability based on changing market dynamics.

On April 2, Thesquirrels.in had reported how the beleaguered company had started laying off staff via telephone calls. Sacked employees did not have to serve a notice period and were not given the scope to undergo a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). The round of sacking was expected to affect up to 500 employees, and was said to be an outcome of a business restructuring exercise announced in October last year. The edtech company is estimated to have let go of more than 10,000 employees over the past two years and its current spate of layoffs mainly hit personnel in sales function departments, sources had said.

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