BYJU'S senior executive quits, to lead US firm Impending Inc

BYJU'S Senior Vice President for International Business Cherian Thomas has resigned from the company and will now helm US-based Impending Inc.

As the CEO, Thomas will focus on building and scaling the product portfolio, while strengthening and growing a global talent pool, Impending Inc said in a statement.

A mail sent to BYJU'S did not elicit any response.

A source familiar with the matter confirmed Thomas' departure but did not comment on his successor.

"We are hugely excited to have Cherian Thomas on board. We share a vision of creating inspired apps with pop culture potential without compromise and have convinced each other that we are going to make it happen together," Impending Inc co-founder Phill Ryu said.

Thomas was touted to be the architect behind BYJU's American expansion and was also responsible for spearheading the business of Osmo (as its CEO), a BYJU'S subsidiary, with a revenue of over USD 100 million in FY21, according to the release.

He was the first international employee at BYJU'S back in 2017 and was credited with building the international organization, according to the statement.

Thomas co-founded the food blogging platform Cucumbertown in 2012, having sold the VC-backed startup to Japanese conglomerate Cookpad in 2016. He was also one of the earliest employees at gaming company Zynga, having worked with them until their IPO in 2011.

Impending is the studio behind applications like video games Heads Up and Here Kitty, and the listing app Clear.