WhiteHat Jr., owned by Byju, is sued by Code.org

27 Dec 2023 , 10:07 AM

According to records examined by Moneycontrol, Byju’s owned WhiteHat Jr. was sued in a US District Court by Code.org, a non-profit organisation and instructional website.

This occurs while the most valuable edtech business is dealing with a number of issues on several fronts.

The non-profit organisation filed a lawsuit against WhiteHat Jr. on December 1st, claiming breach of contract against the latter, according to the document that Moneycontrol was able to obtain.

The first outlet to report on the development was TechCrunch.

WhiteHat Jr. and Code.org inked a contract in May 2021 to improve the former’s in-house coding training. Through the collaboration, WhiteHat Jr. was able to modify its curriculum to incorporate the App Lab, Sprite Lab, and Game Lab services from Code.org.

This comes after a recent Moneycontrol story about Byju’s decision to completely integrate the company’s assets into other business verticals, including its holding company Think & Learn Pvt, and rename its wholly-owned subsidiary WhiteHat Jr. The move was made with the intention of cutting costs in order to temporarily alleviate a liquidity crunch.

Due to its expensive marketing and employee benefit costs, WhiteHat Jr., which Byju’s purchased for an astounding $300 million in cash three years ago, has been one of the company’s most loss-making companies.

Since the acquisition, Byju has contributed more than $100 million to the company’s growth. Thus, a merger with itself would assist the business in lowering its total burn, which is important given its approaching cash requirements.

Ananya Tripathi, the CEO of WhiteHat Jr., has submitted her resignation, which is another high-level departure from India’s most valuable business, as Moneycontrol previously reported in August.

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