BYJU’S Senior Vice President Cherian Thomas Resigns, Appointed as CEO of US Firm Impending
- ByStartupStory | August 22, 2023
Cherian Thomas, formerly the Senior Vice President for international business at BYJU’S, has left the edtech company to assume the role of Chief Executive Officer at Impending, a US-based software and mobile gaming apps company. Impending’s statement emphasized that Thomas will lead efforts to expand the product portfolio, strengthen the global talent pool, and scale the business. Phill Ryu, Co-founder of Impending, highlighted their shared vision of creating impactful apps and expressed confidence in their collaboration.
Impending is recognized for developing popular apps such as Heads Up, Clear, and Classics. Cherian Thomas brings valuable experience to this role, having co-founded and sold Cucumbertown, a venture capital-backed startup, to Japan’s Cookpad in 2016. He was also an early employee at gaming company Zynga.
Cherian Thomas played a pivotal role in establishing BYJU’S US operations and led BYJU’S subsidiary Osmo as its CEO after the company’s acquisition of US-based startup Osmo for $120 million in 2019. Amidst the edtech giant’s series of acquisitions, including Tynker and Epic during the pandemic, Arjun Mohan was appointed as the CEO of BYJU’S international business last month, while Mrinal Mohit took charge of the company’s India operations.
However, BYJU’S has been concurrently implementing workforce reductions as part of cost-cutting initiatives. Last week, the company carried out about 100 performance-related layoffs. These actions followed previous job cuts that impacted over 1,000 individuals. While BYJU’S navigates numerous challenges, such as financial statement delays, conflicts with lenders, and disputes with investment funds, it continues to grapple with the aftermath of the pandemic-led edtech boom. In FY21, BYJU’S reported a significant loss of Rs 4,564.38 crore compared to its FY20 loss of Rs 305.5 crore.
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