Whitehat Jr founder and CEO Karan Bajaj has quit the company
Karan Bajaj has left White Hat Jr a year after the controversy-ridden company was acquired by Byju’s in a landmark $ 350 million all-cash deal. In a letter announcing the departure, Byju Raveendran acknowledged Bajaj’s leadership of White Hat Jr and BYJU’s Future School and called him a “force of nature … making unconventional choices”.
Raveendran wished Bajaj “stayed longer” but wished him the best on “an exciting path ahead”.
Read the full text of Raveendran’s letter to employees here:
Dear All,
I wanted to share an important announcement with you.
This week, we completed one year of WhiteHat Jr joining the BYJU’S family. In this short period, Karan and team have exceeded all expectations by bringing his original vision of kids being builders and creators to more countries, courses and formats than we’d set out in our plan. We’ve expanded successfully to Brazil, Mexico, Australia, UK beyond India and US, launched very creative new courses in Maths and Music beyond Coding, while also fulfilling our vision of touching every child without barriers of infrastructure or accessibility by entering the school segment at the last mile.
Under Karan’s leadership, WhiteHat Jr and BYJU’S FutureSchool now enable hundreds of thousands of students in countries around the world daily to learn and create with 11,000+ deeply committed teachers. The delight that each child takes in a live class, as most of you who’re parents have experienced—and I experience with my son, Nish, each week—is a joy to behold and a true revolution in active learning!
Having more than exceeded all our mutually outlined goals for the 1st year, Karan is now ready, as we had mutually decided at the time of acquisition, to progress to the next chapter of his life. In the last year of knowing him deeply, Karan’s clarity of vision coupled with the incredible daily energy to execute relentlessly, is akin to none. While I wish he would’ve stayed longer, Karan is a force of nature and accustomed to making unconventional choices, as you all know, and I wish him only the best for what will surely be an exciting path ahead.
With Karan’s departure, Trupti Mukker, whom you know well as the Head of Customer Experience and Delivery, will lead the organization, ably supported by the extremely strong leadership team that Karan and I have set in place. In a short span of 7 months, Trupti has been a great asset to the organization, delivering unmatched student and teacher experience as witnessed in our record NPS scores and will bring her 20+ years of progressive, global leadership experience to continue expanding and scaling the organization.
With the great success we’re seeing in every new country and category we enter, WhiteHat Jr and BYJU’S FutureSchool will continue to operate independently under Trupti, drawing synergies from the core as needed, and be the center of our global expansion plans.
I will look forward to seeing you all later in the Town Hall to thank Karan for his outstanding contribution and wish him the very best ahead!
Warm Regards,
Byju Raveendran
Read the full text of Karan Bajaj’s letter to colleagues
