BYJU’S top executive Cherian Thomas quits, joins US firm Impending as CEO

Cherian Thomas, senior vice-president at ed-tech firm Baiju, has left the firm and joined Impending Inc., the company behind apps like Heads Up, Clear, Classics, etc., as its CEO.

Thomas, who has an excellent track record across consumer technology companies, as Impending’s CEO will focus on building and scaling the product portfolio while strengthening and growing the global talent pool, the company said.

He played an integral role in setting up US operations in Byju’s. He was responsible for leading Osmo’s business as a Byju’s subsidiary with revenues of more than $100 million in FY21. He was Byjus’ first international employee in 2017 and is credited with building an international organization to acquire companies like Osmo.

Earlier, he co-founded and sold a VC-backed startup, Cucumbertown, to Japanese conglomerate Cookpad in 2016. He was one of the earliest employees of gaming major Zynga.

His exit comes at a time when the edtech firm is grappling with multiple issues including repayment of term loan B and delay in filing its FY22 results. A few days ago, the company let go of 100 workers as part of a performance review.

By Priyanka Bhowmick