Byju’s has appointed Nitin Golani as the new chief financial officer (CFO) of its India business. Golani will take up the new role alongside existing responsibilities at the group level as president of finance. After a near six-month stint at Byju’s, the current CFO Ajay Goel is heading back to Vedanta.

Byju’s has also roped in veteran Pradip Kanakia as special adviser.

The departure of Ajay Goel comes at a time when the ed-tech major is preparing to announce the results for FY22, dealing with lenders over a billion-dollar loan and taking steps to raise fresh capital to keep operations going.

Who is Nitin Golani

Nitin Golani was previously the chief strategy officer at Aakash Education. He played a crucial role in Byju’s $1-billion acquisition of Aakash in 2021 and moved into an operating role at Aakash post-acquisition.

“I am committed to ensuring that Byju’s growth is robust and sustainable. My endeavour now is to maximise shareholder value by optimising financial performance,” Nitin Golani said.

Byju’s appointed Goel as CFO in April this year after the exit of PV Rao in December 2021. He was previously the Group Deputy CFO of Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Resources. Deloitte Haskins had quit as the auditor of Byju’s during Goel’s tenure.

BDO is currently auditing Byju’s and is expected to sign off on its FY22 numbers soon.

Goel was responsible for overseeing financial strategy and management, tasked with working with the founders and the senior leadership on strategy development, capital planning and financial analysis.

Financial troubles

The ed-tech major is in the midst of a severe cash crunch. Recently, the firm held talks to divest two of its assets— Great Learning and Epic—for repayment of the $1.2 billion term loan B (TLB) and to raise capital for Aakash.

Byju’s has raised over $5 billion in funding from equity and debt investors till date. It last completed a $250- million funding round in October at a valuation of $22 billion.

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