BYJU’S Appoints Former Vedanta Executive Ajay Goel As CFO

Edtech giant BYJU’S on Monday (April 3) said it has appointed former Vedanta Resources’ executive Ajay Goel as its chief financial officer (CFO). 

Goel will take over the position which has been vacant since December 2021, when BYJU’S then CFO P V Rao quit.

“As CFO, Ajay will be responsible for overseeing financial strategy and management for BYJU’S. He will work closely with the founders and the senior leadership on strategy development, capital planning and financial analysis,” BYJU’S said in a statement.

Before this, Goel was the group deputy CFO at Vedanta Resources since March 2021. Earlier, he has also worked at Diageo, GE, Coca-Cola, and Nestle.

BYJU’S cofounder and CEO Byju Raveendran said, “With his extensive experience and diverse skill set, Ajay is the ideal candidate to take on the role of the chief financial officer as we continue to chart the course of sustainable growth in this exciting new phase.”

The edtech decacorn said that Goel possesses expertise in areas such as building high-performing teams, dealing with board and audit committees, strategic finance, business partnering and decision support, leading M&As, capital restructuring and funding strategy, taxation, and other related fields.

For Goel, it would be a busy first few months at the edtech giant.

He joins BYJU’S when it has recently seen its valuation nearly halved by US-based asset manager BlackRock to $11.5 Bn. This could create problems for the edtech giant which is in talks with TPG and other investors to raise $500 Mn in a fresh equity round.

Goel is also likely to be tasked with handling the renegotiations of BYJU’S term loan B (TLB) worth $1.2 Bn.

The new CFO will also have to take care of BYJU’S financial statements for FY22 as the edtech company is once again late in filing the report. It also filed FY21 financial statements 18 months after the end of the year.

Reeling from mounting losses and the slowdown in the sector, BYJU’S has fired more than 4,000 employees across group companies since last year, as per Inc42’s ‘Indian Startup Layoff Tracker’.

BYJU’S net loss surged 20X to INR 4,588 Cr in FY21 from INR 231.69 Cr in FY20.

The edtech major was also said to be considering shutting down WhiteHat Jr., though it denied the report.