BYJU’S bolsters tech leadership with two senior-level appointments; hires ex-Amazon execs Sunil Sharma and Darshan Bhandari

BYJU’S bolsters tech leadership with two senior-level appointments; hires ex-Amazon execs Sunil Sharma and Darshan Bhandari

Bengaluru, July 7, 2022: BYJU’S, the world’s leading edtech company, today announced the appointment of Sunil Sharma as Vice-President, Engineering – Student & Teacher Experience and Darshan Bhandari as Vice-President, Engineering – BYJU’S Tuition Centre and Devices, as the company continues to attract top talent to drive innovation, build impactful learning experiences, and further strengthen its robust technology vertical.

While Sunil will be at the forefront of catalysing critical technologies to enhance student, parent, and teacher experience along with customer care and mentor connect to provide a best-in-class learning environment, Darshan will be at the helm of BYJU’S revolutionary hybrid learning platform – BYJU’S Tuition Centre – to scale its technological capabilities, lead the devices platform’s OS and app development, and further augment BYJU’S tech prowess to define the future of learning.

As a tech-driven global leader in education, BYJU’S has been investing in the powerful synergy of technology and innovation by scaling its tech, engineering, and product teams. With these new appointments, BYJU’S will further enhance its world-class learning products, solutions, and experiences to help millions of students fall in love with learning.

Commenting on the appointments, Anil Goel, President – Technology, BYJU’S, said, “Technology is at the heart of BYJU’S and the company’s technology-first approach makes it home to some of the world’s finest tech experts. I am delighted to welcome Sunil and Darshan as we continue to strengthen our tech foundation. While Sunil’s expertise across technology, strategy, and execution will bolster BYJU’S ongoing initiatives to optimally leverage technological solutions and improve student experience, Darshan will play a key role in enhancing tech-led growth, providing support for improved front-end and back-end processes and helping us achieve our overarching digital and technology goals. I look forward to their expertise in helping us strengthen our innovation backbone and redefine learning for the next generation.”

With a career spanning over 21 years, Sunil brings with him a proven track record of scaling technology teams across companies such as Amazon, Hewlett Packard and AGT International. He is an alumnus of XLRI Jamshedpur. In his last stint, Sunil was head of technology for freight auditing and payments at Amazon.

Sunil Sharma, Vice President, Engineering- Student & Teacher Experience, said, “It’s an honour to be a part of a forward-thinking company whose products are trusted by millions of students as well as parents all over the world. I’m excited to join the BYJU’S family and embark on what I’m sure will be an incredible journey with very talented and mission-driven professionals.”

Darshan is a seasoned engineering leader and growth specialist with 18+ years of experience in technology innovation, building top talent and delivering world-class products across companies such as Amazon, Reliance Jio Infocomm, and Amdocs. In his last stint, Darshan was leading the technology for World Wide Customer Returns as well as Product Support at Amazon.

Commenting on the appointment, Darshan Bhandari, Vice President, Engineering – BYJU’S Tuition Centre and Devices, said, “I am thrilled to be a part of BYJU’S dynamic team. Through its market-leading innovation, BYJU’S has extended the transforming potential of education to students across the country. By engineering new innovations in education, particularly those centred around hybrid learning, I look forward to pushing the envelope on education further by the way of collaboration, communication, and connection.”

About BYJU’S:

BYJU’S is the world’s leading edtech company that offers highly adaptive, engaging, and effective learning programs for students across K-12, competitive exams, coding, and upskilling courses for professionals. With over 150 million registered learners globally, 7 million annual paid subscriptions, and a presence in 120 countries, BYJU’S has been at the forefront of creating tech-driven and immersive learning experiences for students around the world.

Since the launch of its flagship Learning App in 2015, BYJU’S has been innovating learning experiences and pioneering new approaches to education by blending world-class pedagogy with cutting edge technology. These include hybrid learning, ‘phygital’ learning, interactive and personalised approaches, and multiple learning formats.

BYJU’S portfolio of products has now expanded to meet the learning requirements across grades, levels, and geographies. These include Disney.BYJU’S Early Learn, which offers highly engaging early learning programs for the K-3 segment; BYJU’S Classes with Two Teacher Advantage – a comprehensive after-school learning solution; BYJU’S Tuition Centre – a hybrid after-school learning centre; BYJU’S Exam Prep for various entrance tests, and more. It also offers coding, maths and music programs to students in the USA, UK, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, and Mexico.

BYJU’S is taking big strides in bringing together the best of offline and online learning experiences and setting up international innovation hubs to deliver breakthrough solutions across its ecosystem of learning products.

Taking its vision of building a community of active learners globally, BYJU’S has onboarded strong partners through strategic acquisitions of Osmo, EPiC, Tynker, White Hat Jr, Aakash, Great Learning, Gradeup, and GeoGebra.

A digital-first company, BYJU’S has been backed by prominent investors like Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Naspers, CPPIB, General Atlantic, Tencent, Sequoia Capital, Sofina, Verlinvest, IFC, Aarin Capital, TimesInternet, Lightspeed Ventures, Tiger Global, Owl Ventures & Qatar Investment Authority.

BYJU’S is heavily invested in the amalgamation of education and sports. It is the official sponsor of the Indian Cricket Team. In 2022, BYJU’S also became the first edtech company to be an official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup, inspiring learning through the unifying power of football.

With the aim to democratise education and break socio-economic barriers to learning, BYJU’S launched its social impact initiative Education for All in 2020. Within a year of launch, the initiative positively impacted 3.4 million children across 26 states and 340+ districts by making tech-driven education accessible and equitable. By 2025, the initiative aims to impact 10 million children.