ETtech Exclusive: New Byju’s CEO Arjun Mohan plans to merge businesses; cut more than 5,000 jobs

Arjun Mohan, who took over as the new chief executive of Byju’s India business last week, has hit the ground running at the edtech firm, setting the stage for a series of changes. People in the know said Mohan plans to cut the size of the local unit by a third to tighten control on costs.

Mohan, who returned to Byju’s after heading Upgrad’s India business, has briefed senior executives at the firm that he will be merging several business verticals as part of the changes which are expected to be rolled out later this week or early next week.

This would lead to job cuts of around 5,500, including permanent and contractual staffers.

The roles being cut across the firm are only at Think & Learn—parent of Byju’s—and are not linked with any of its subsidiaries. However, a significant number of roles being made redundant would be across senior positions in the firm.

Going forward, the focus is to bring more attention to profitable business inside the two broad verticals. “They (Byju’s) want to bring more students to offline centres and that’s the main way the new management has identified to run operations that can sustain over a period of time,” a person aware of the discussions said.

“We are in the final stages of a business restructuring exercise to simplify operating structures, reduce the cost base and improve cash flow management. Byju’s new India CEO, Arjun Mohan, will be completing this process in the next few weeks and will steer a revamped and sustainable operation ahead,” a company spokesperson told ET, without commenting on ET’s specific queries on the restructuring.

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