Will Byju’s shut down the coding platform WhiteHat Jr.?

Byju’s is weighing whether or not to wind down WhiteHat Jr, a coding platform that it acquired over two years in the past at an enterprise worth of $300 million, because the edtech group seems to chop bills and remove a enterprise unit that has drawn appreciable criticism to the agency.

The Bengaluru-headquartered agency, India’s most beneficial startup at $22 billion valuation, has held conversations in current weeks about shutting down what was as soon as touted as one in all its greatest acquisitions, three sources acquainted with the matter instructed TechCrunch. It has not reached the choice but, in line with a separate particular person acquainted with the matter.

The discussions come at a time when Byju’s is slicing prices throughout the corporate. The agency, which has laid off 1000’s of staff and pared again on advertising and marketing bills, was till lately spending about $14 million a month on the coding platform, one of many sources mentioned.

A Byju’s spokesperson declined to remark.

Byju’s acquired WhiteHat Jr in 2020 at an enterprise worth of $300 million. A substantial quantity of the payout was tied to future progress metrics. Byju’s ultimately spent lower than $235 million on the acquisition deal, one of many aforementioned sources mentioned who, like others, requested anonymity discussing non-public issues.

The coding unit has drawn criticism from many for its deceptive claims and aggressive ways to courtroom college students. WhiteHat Jr famously additionally sued a few of these critics, a transfer that attracted the agency much more backlash. It later withdrew the lawsuit. WhiteHat Jr founder Karan Bajaj (pictured above) left Byju’s a yr after the acquisition.

Byju’s — which counts Sequoia India, Lightspeed Enterprise Companions, Tiger World, B Capital, UBS and Basic Atlantic amongst its backers — has spent the previous one yr addressing many criticisms levelled on the agency. Byju’s mentioned final month that its gross sales folks now not visited college students’ properties to pitch to their dad and mom and the agency now conducts a take a look at to find out whether or not a child’s dad and mom can afford to subscribe to the service earlier than signing them up.