WhiteHat Jr CEO Ananya quits, in another high-level exit at BYJU's

NEW DELHI: Ananya Tripathi, the CEO of the online coding provider WhiteHat Jr, the beleaguered platform under edtech giant BYJU's umbrella, has resigned from the company, marking another top-level exit at India's most-valued startup, a media report said on Wednesday.

According to Moneycontrol, citing sources, Tripathi, who has been on maternity leave since May, has decided to leave, but BYJU's hasn't accepted her resignation formally and is still attempting to persuade her to stay.

In Tripathi's absence, Arjun Mohan, who rejoined BYJU's in July to lead its international operations, has been assisting the team.

Tripathi began working for WhiteHat Jr in April last year. Before joining WhiteHat Jr, she was the Managing Director at KKR Capstone. Tripathi, a McKinsey alumnus, also served as Myntra's Chief Strategy Officer for nearly four years.

According to the report, three more senior executives, including BYJU's Chief Business Officer Prathyusha Agarwal earlier this week, had left the company.

BYJU's paid $300 million in cash to acquire WhiteHat Jr in August 2020. Karan Bajaj, the founder of WhiteHat Jr, received one of the largest exits in India's startup ecosystem as a result of the transaction.

Bajaj remained as CEO of WhiteHat Jr until August 2021, exactly a year after the company was acquired.

In March, Ashutosh Singh, Director of HR Business Partner (HRBP) and HR leader for international markets of WhiteHat Jr resigned.

Last year, WhiteHat Jr laid off around 300 employees, after more than 1,000 of its employees resigned after being asked to return to office in April-May.

Most of the fired employees belonged to the code-teaching and sales teams at the platform and some of them worked in Brazil