KKR’s Ananya Tripathi may join Byju’s Whitehat Jr as CEO

Bengaluru: Ananya Tripathi, an MD at KKR Capstone and formerly a chief strategy officer at Myntra, is in talks to join edtech major Byju’s Whitehat Jr as its CEO later this month, multiple sources aware of the matter said. Tripathi, who was made an MD at KKR from the earlier position of a director, has resigned at KKR and is expected to start at Whitehat Jr in the middle of March, these people said. Tripathi’s hiring comes at a time when there is a larger restructuring underway at the company. KKR Capstone helps investment teams and portfolio firms of private equity major KKR globally.

Tripathi’s potential entry at Whitehat Jr comes at a time when the coding platform for kids has faced severe criticism for its business practices, especially how the courses were sold to parents. Last year in August, Whitehat Jr’s original founder and CEO, Karan Bajaj had left the firm after which Byju’s customer experience head, Trupti Mukker was made the CEO. Whitehat Jr had to move court as well against people who publicly criticised its trade practices.

When contacted, a Byju’s spokesperson said, “We do not comment on internal movements.” Tripathi declined to comment on the matter.

It is not immediately clear what role Mukker will be given within Byju’s once Tripathi joins the firm.

A significant chunk of Tripathi’s mandate would also be on the global business of Whitehat Jr, people aware of the matter said. Byju’s, which has been on an acquisition spree and expanding in global markets, has relied heavily on Whitehat Jr to build its Byju’s Future School which was launched in April last year. Byju’s had said at the time it will take Byju’s Future School to markets like the US, the UK, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia.

In August 2020, Byju’s had acquired WhiteHat Jr in an all cash deal worth $300 million. The deal marked Byju’s entry into the computer code learning segment, with a focus on high school and college students.

In April, last year, Byju’s had announced international aspirations through the launch of Byju’s Future School to enter into global markets of Latin America and Southeast Asian geographies. The expansion was in partnership with WhiteHat Jr, to offer personalised learning in subjects including mathematics, science, coding and music to children in these geographies.

Through the expansion, Byju’s and WhiteHat Jr were focussing on students in grades kindergarten to eighth. With the partnership, WhiteHat Jr was expected to take its offerings to Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, the US, the UK, and Australia.

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