Edtech unicorn Unacademy has appointed Sandhydeep Purri as its Chief People Officer (CPO) amid a string of senior-level departures from the company. Purri, with more than 25 years of experience in leadership positions, has driven business growth and transformation through people and cultural initiatives.
Before joining the edtech unicorn, Purri served as the CPO at Sapphire Foods, where she was responsible for HR strategies for brands such as Pizza Hut and KFC. She also led organisation development and effectiveness initiatives within the retail sector of the Aditya Birla Group.
“Her extensive experience and expertise promises to amplify our mission and will be invaluable as we continue to expand our team and scale up as an organisation. Her leadership will undoubtedly be pivotal in cultivating talent and championing a culture of innovation and progress at Unacademy,” said Gaurav Munjal, Co-founder and CEO, Unacademy.
CFO resignation
This comes at a time when Unacademy chief financial officer Subramanian Ramachandran has resigned from the edtech unicorn, according to sources.
CFO Ramachandran has been with the company since 2019. The exit from the company comes at a time when Unacademy is yet to file its FY23 financials.
The edtech major is reeling with top-level exits, the company’s chief operating officer Vivek Sinha resigned from the company in August after a stint of nearly three years.
Restructuring
Recently, Unacademy-owned software-as-a-service platform Graphy has let go of 20-30 per cent of its workforce, which is nearly 40-50 employees. After Relevel and PrepLadder, this is another flagship group company which is undergoing a Since 2022, the company has laid off at least over 1,200 employees.
The edtech unicorn had elevated Sumit Jain, who leads the company’s Graphy division, to partner, which is “like a co-founder who joined at a later stage,” as per Gaurav Munjal, Co-Founder and CEO, Unacademy.
Jain joined the company in April 2020 and co-founded the Graphy division which allows educators and creators to launch their online courses.
Founded in 2015 by Munjal, Roman Saini, and Hemesh Singh, Unacademy was last valued at around $3.4 billion in August 2021 when it raised $440 million from investors including Temasek and Softbank.
