Swiggy, BYJU’S Backer Prosus Appoints Separate Leaders For Food Delivery, Edtech

Investment major Prosus has reportedly undertaken an internal restructuring and separated its edtech and food delivery segments into two discrete segments with dedicated leadership. The change will come into effect starting September 1.

“As of September 1, we will separate food delivery and edtech into two discrete segments, each with its dedicated leadership team. These segments began as early-stage investments that have been diligently grown into world-class portfolios,” a report by ET cited Prosus as saying in an internal memo. 

As part of the reshuffle, Larry Illg, who led the combined segment (foodtech and edtech), will step down. Gautam Thakar, CEO of OLX Autos, has been appointed as the CEO of Prosus’ global edtech vertical, while Roger Rabalais, who was earlier the CFO for the food delivery and edtech segments, will take over as the CEO of the food segment.

Both Thakar and Rabalais will report directly to Prosus CEO Bob van Dijk. 

“As a member of the global executive team and based out of Mumbai, Gautam will also take on a broader leadership role for Prosus in India. Gautam and his team will work alongside both Prosus’s India and global leadership team to play an active role in supporting Prosus’s growth and existing investee companies in India,” said the internal memo.

It must be noted that the investment major, which has invested more than $6 Bn in India, recently sold OLX India’s business to CarTrade for a consideration of INR 535.54 Cr.

Earlier this year, Prosus confirmed the resignation of its representative Russell Dreisenstock from the board of BYJU’S in June.

Prosus’ India portfolio includes startups like Swiggy, BYJU’S and Eruditus from the food delivery and edtech segments.

The investment giant has stakes across global food delivery giants, including Delivery Hero and Flink in Germany and Oda in Norway. It also directly operates Brazilian foodtech giant iFood. In the edtech segment, Prosus has investments across global learning companies such as Udemy, Stack Overflow, Skillsoft and Brainly.

Last month, Prosus expressed its dissatisfaction with the governance at its portfolio company BYJU’S. The investment firm said the edtech giant’s reporting and governance structures did not evolve sufficiently for a company of that scale and also alleged that BYJU’S ‘disregarded advice’.

“Despite repeated efforts from our Director, executive leadership at BYJU’S regularly disregarded advice and recommendations relating to strategic, operational, legal, and corporate governance matters,” Prosus said late in July.

The Netherlands-based investment giant has also cut valuations of its Indian investments recently, as it marked down BYJU’S to $5.1 Bn. It also wrote off its investments in ZestMoney.