Ajay Goel

Ajay Goel, Byju’s chief financial officer (CFO), has resigned just six months after joining the ed tech firm, to return to his previous company Vedanta, which just announced a significant demerger that separated its business into six organisations, according to media reports.

Byju’s previous CFO, PV Rao, resigned in December 2021, and Goel was appointed 16 months later, in April of this year. Goel previously worked at Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Resources as Group Deputy CFO. Goel has worked with Diageo, GE (General Electric), Coca-Cola, and Nestle.

Goel’s resignation comes at a critical time for Byju’s, which has yet to disclose its FY22 (2021-22) results and is battling lenders over a billion-dollar debt, all while attempting to seek new funding to keep operations running.

It is speculated that Nitin Golani, a corporate insider, will take over as CFO, with another veteran, Pradip Kanakia, serving as a special adviser.

Byju’s has yet to submit their FY22 financial reports to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). Private companies must file their annual results with the MCA by September of that year as part of regulatory compliance. Byju’s reported a surprising fall in revenue in its FY21 (2020-21) statistics, about 18 months after the fiscal year finished. Meanwhile, the company’s losses have ballooned to above Rs 4,500 crore.