Simplilearn CPO Anand Narayanan quits after eight years

Representative image

Blackstone-backed edtech startup Simplilearn chief product officer (CPO) Anand Narayanan has resigned, a few months after the firm rejigged the leadership team to scale up operations with new appointments.

Mark Moran rejoined the company as chief marketing officer  and Veerasundar V assuming the post of chief financial officer.

"After an absolutely amazing 8+ years, I have decided to move on and find my next passion project. "why?" you may ask...sometimes the "why" is simply that you realise that someone else can take your role and bring a lot more energy to it since you have been doing it for a bit too long," Narayanan said in a LinkedIn post on July 13.

"As a shareholder and well wisher of the company I couldn't see past that...so it is time to move on and retain that passion and energy in me that my team respects and values (albeit somewhere else)."

While the details of his next move are yet to be determined, Narayanan hinted towards changing industries for the fifth time and focusing on personal learning and growth.

"Edtech has been kind to me," he said, "but it's time for another personal disruption."

Founded in 2010 by Krishna Kumar, Simplilearn offers online upskilling courses in cyber security, cloud computing, project management and data science to students and working professionals. The edtech is based out across San Francisco, California, and Bengaluru.

It also offers courses in association with educational institutions and global organisations like IBM, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and KPMG.

The downsizing and restructuring have been prevalent across edtech firms in India including the likes of Scaler, Adda247, PhysicsWallah and Unacademy, as many take hold of their operations in the aftermath of declining sales in e-learning and lower investor interest in the sector.

As reported by Moneycontrol, Unacademy COO Jagnor Singh stepped down on July 15 as internal rejig continued.

In December, Simplilearn terminated around 200 employees from various departments, including sales, marketing and operations, after a performance review.

The edtech company saw its operating revenue grow to Rs 684 crore in FY23, from Rs 341 crore in FY22, up 50.33 percent. Losses spiked 36.31  percent to Rs 244 crore from Rs 179 crore in FY22.

The startup has raised over $80 million so far and was valued at around $601 million in its Series E round in November 2022, which was led by GSV Ventures with participation from Clal Insurance, and DisruptAD, ADQ’s venture platform.