Byju’s CFO quits in seven months

Ajay Goel, who joined Byju’s as CFO in April this year, has already quit the edtech giant, the two said Tuesday. Goel will leave the firm after “completing the audit formalities” for the financial year ending March 2022 and return to mining conglomerate Vedanta, Byju’s said.

Byju’s said it has appointed industry veteran Pradip Kanakia as a senior advisor and elevated Nitin Golani, who currently serves as President of the startup’s finances, as its CFO. “I thank the founders and colleagues at Byju’s for helping me assemble the FY22 audit in three months. I appreciate the support received during a short but impactful stint at Byju’s,” said Goel in a statement.

Tuesday’s disclosure is the latest slide for Byju’s, India’s most valuable startup, which is grappling with scores of governance, financial and optics issues.

The startup is dealing with a group of lenders over a $1.2 billion term-B loan, and another potential conflict with Davidson Kempner, which had originally agreed to extend as much as $250 million credit to Byju’s but is now instead pushing for a payment over execution of a technical default clause.

Deloitte quit the startup’s board in June this year, alongside three of its key board members. A month later Prosus, which owns more than 9% of Byju’s and is one of the earlier backers, publicly criticized the Bengaluru-headquartered startup for not evolving sufficiently and disregarding the investor’s advice and recommendations despite repeated attempts.

Deloitte said in its resignation letter in June that the startup, which has grown accustomed to delaying the filing of its financial accounts, hadn’t received “any communication” on the resolution of the audit report for the financial year going as back as the financial year ending March 31, 2021, nor had it received status of the readiness of the financial statements and the underlying books for the financial year ending March last year.

Byju’s, which has cut over 10,000 jobs since the market condition turned, has repeatedly also delayed filing the financial account for March 2022.