A 12 months after promoting his start-up, WhiteHat Jr, which teaches coding to kids, to edtech decacorn Byju’s for $300 million, founder Karan Bajaj has determined to maneuver on.
“As I move on to new paths, my deep gratitude to (over) 17,000 employees and teachers who weren’t a part of my life just two years ago,” mentioned Bajaj, in a LinkedIn publish. “Thank you for trusting me through thick and thin, I know almost each one of you and will always remember you very, very warmly! Also to Byju, who I’ve grown to respect deeply as a great educator with a boundary-less vision of the world, who’ll change the nature of education to active, creative learning the world over.”
Last 12 months Bajaj offered his 18-month-old start-up to Byju’s founder and chief govt officer Byju Raveendran for $300 million (roughly Rs 2,240 crore) in an all-cash deal — over the video conferencing platform Zoom itself. Bajaj had continued to guide and scale this enterprise in India and the US.
This April, Byju’s, which is probably the most invaluable startup within the nation with a $16.5 billion valuation, globally launched its 1:1 reside on-line studying platform ‘Byju’s Future School’. The agency had mentioned Byju’s Future School shall be out there within the US, UK, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico in May and can progressively develop to extra geographies within the close to future. This was constructed on the success of Byju’s subsidiary WhiteHat Jr in India and choose international locations globally.
“Barely 2.5 years ago, it was an idea,” mentioned Bajaj, in a LinkedIn publish. “Now, thanks to the power of tech, thousands of students and teachers are on the WHJ/Byju’s FutureSchool platform, creating things with coding, maths, and now even the guitar and piano daily across the world, living the mission of kids being builders and creators versus consumers.”
Bajaj welcomed Trupti Mukker, a high govt at WhiteHat Jr and his classmate from IIM-Bangalore, who would lead the agency.
“A warm welcome to Trupti Mukker, my classmate from IIM and a leader I’ve admired from far for two decades,” mentioned Bajaj. “I know her competent, compassionate leadership will enable thousands of women to enter the mainstream workforce as WhiteHat Jr/Byju’s FutureSchool expands into new countries and courses.”
Born into an Army household and who spent his childhood in Shimla, Bajaj earlier than beginning WhiteHat Jr served as CEO for Discovery, the place he led Discovery Networks (Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet and Discovery Kids ) in South Asia.
He can also be a well-travelled individual. His travels embrace solo backpacking throughout South America and japanese Europe, and taking journeys together with his spouse from Europe to India by street. He additionally grew to become a yoga trainer in Sivananda Ashram in South India. He can also be an enormous believer in a boundaryless world.
“I’ve never had a more stretching, challenging, intense but ultimately satisfying few years in my life,” mentioned Bajaj. “And I hope I can replicate it in some form as I look ahead to try to carve out a career in public service next after transitioning deeply and taking a small sabbatical. For now, though, I’ve gathered enough stories to fill a book.”
