Karan Bajaj, who sold WhiteHat Jr to Byju's for $300 mn, decides to move on

Hands over baton to Trupti Mukker, a top executive at WhiteHat Jr and his classmate from IIM-Bangalore

A year after selling his start-up, WhiteHat Jr, which teaches coding to children, to edtech decacorn Byju’s for $300 million, founder Karan Bajaj has decided to move 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,” said Bajaj, in a LinkedIn post. “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 year Bajaj sold his 18-month-old start-up to Byju’s founder and chief executive officer Byju Raveendran for $300 million (approximately Rs 2,240 crore) in an all-cash deal — over the video conferencing platform Zoom itself. Bajaj had continued to lead and scale this business in India and the US.

This April, Byju’s, which is the most valuable startup in the country with a $16.5 billion valuation, globally launched its 1:1 live online learning platform ‘Byju’s Future School’. The firm had said Byju’s Future School will be available in the US, UK, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico in May and will progressively expand to more geographies in the near future. This was built on the success of Byju’s subsidiary WhiteHat Jr in India and select countries globally.

“Barely 2.5 years ago, it was an idea,” said Bajaj, in a LinkedIn post. “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 top executive at WhiteHat Jr and his classmate from IIM-Bangalore, who would lead the firm.

“A warm welcome to Trupti Mukker, my classmate from IIM and a leader I’ve admired from far for two decades,” said 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 family and who spent his childhood in Shimla, Bajaj before starting WhiteHat Jr served as CEO for Discovery, where he led Discovery Networks (Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet and Discovery Kids ) in South Asia.

He is also a well-travelled person. His travels include solo backpacking across South America and eastern Europe, and taking trips with his wife from Europe to India by road. He also became a yoga teacher in Sivananda Ashram in South India. He is also a big believer in a boundaryless world.

“I’ve never had a more stretching, challenging, intense but ultimately satisfying few years in my life,” said 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.”