Byju's ropes in ex-Bain executive Rachna Bahadur to lead global expansion | Business Standard News

Byju’s has appointed Rachna Bahadur as the senior vice president to lead the global expansion plans of the world’s most valuable edtech firm. In her new role, Bahadur will lead the overall planning, strategy, and roadmap for Byju’s expansion in new and existing markets.

With over 15 years of experience, before joining Byju’s, Bahadur was a Partner at Bain & Company where she was a leader in the consumer product practice. She also co-led the ‘Women @ Bain’ India chapter which aims at creating an inclusive and gender non-conforming (GNC) environment for women to thrive in. At Bain, she has advised top Indian and MNC FMCGs on topics ranging across market entry, growth strategy, marketing, sales, M&A and organization design.

“For a decade, Byju’s has been at the helm of creating value in a students life, and I am thrilled to be a part of the team that is at the forefront of redefining the way education is delivered across the world,” said Rachna Bahadur, senior vice president, global expansion, Byju’s.

Bahadur has a B.A. (Hons) in Mathematics from St.Stephen’s College, New Delhi, and has an MBA from The Wharton School of Business. A consistent yoga practitioner, she also has developed a keen interest in art and paints herself. She also likes to explore new cultures and cuisines.

“I look forward to working with the team to further build on the foundation and growth potential in the business,” said Bahadur. “From building new partnerships to expanding existing ones, I look forward to crafting new strategies to take Byju’s into its next phase of growth.”

This appointment is a step towards strengthening Byju’s leadership across verticals as the company aims to further build world-class products, teams, and partnerships. Bahadur would be responsible for designing Byju’s next growth phase, creating new partnerships, reinforcing sales, and solidifying the company’s market positioning across the globe. She will also be responsible for strengthening the footprint of Byju’s recent acquisition of digital reading platform Epic in the US market.

“As we continue to evolve and diversify our business across the globe, we are focusing on bringing the best talent in the industry to further drive our mission of creating a community of lifelong learners. Rachna (Bahadur)is a leader with a proven track record,” said Pravin Prakash, chief people Officer, Byju’s. “Her extensive knowledge, depth of experience, and core background in consumer product practice will prove a key asset to us. She will play a vital role in charting a high impact and high growth network for Byju’s.”

Launched in 2015, Byju’s is a leading firm in offering personalized learning programs for school students in India. It has over 115 million students cumulatively learning from the app, 7 million annual paid subscriptions, and an annual renewal rate of 86 per cent.

As Byju’s enters the next phase of growth in its continuous mission of helping children fall in love with learning, the company said is further enhancing its leadership to drive excellence, globally. As a purpose-driven, student-centric organisation, Byju’s said it is committed to building world-class learning experiences, driven by a unified passion and exceptional teams to impact how millions of children learn.

Bahadur’s appointment comes at a time when the Bengaluru-based firm is on an acquisition spree in India and globally as the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of online education. Such acquisitions are helping the firm to dominate the edtech market and compete with players such as SoftBank-backed Unacademy, Vedantu, Simplilearn, UpGrad, Amazon Academy. This month Byju’s acquired Austria-headquartered math learning firm GeoGebra for about $100 million. This marked Byju’s 9th major buy this year. It has spent more than $2 billion in the past several months on these acquisitions.

In September this year, it acquired US-based Tynker, a leading K-12 creative coding platform for about $200 million, according to the sources. Some of the other deals include the $1 billion buy of New Delhi-based Aakash Educational Services (AESL) in April and the $600 million acquisition of Singapore-headquartered Great Learning, a leading global player in professional and higher education.

In September, it also acquired Gradeup, one of India’s largest online exam preparation platforms. In July this year, Byju’s acquired US-based digital reading platform Epic for $500 million. In 2019, Byju’s bought US-based educational gaming company Osmo for $120 million in a stock-and-cash deal. In August 2020, Byju’s also bought WhiteHat Jr, which teaches coding to children, for $300 mn.

Byju’s is aiming to become one of the largest players in the space in the US, with a target to hit revenues of $1 billion in the next three years.

This content was originally published here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/3Eea1AX
via IFTTT