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BYJU’S acquires ed-tech start-up WhiteHat Jr
KOLKATA: BYJU’S, the leading ed-tech company, has announced that it has acquired Mumbai based ed-tech start-up, WhiteHat Jr.
This partnership brings together two formidable brands: BYJU’S, with its unmatched breadth of offerings and creator of India’s most-loved school-learning app, and WhiteHat Jr., a hugely popular and unique coding platform. With coding fast emerging as a key skill for the future, this integration will help BYJU’S further expand its offerings in India. This acquisition will also accelerate BYJU’S US expansion plans. This partnership is timely with the Government of India pushing skills such as coding from early classes with the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
After the acquisition, BYJU’S will make significant investments in WhiteHat Jr’s technology platform, product innovation while expanding the teacher base to cater to demand from new markets. WhiteHat Jr. Founder, Karan Bajaj will continue to lead and scale this business in India and the US.
“We started WhiteHat Jr. to make kids creators instead of consumers of technology,” WhiteHat Jr founder Karan Bajaj explains. “Technology is at the centre of every human interaction today and we had set out to create a coding curriculum that was being delivered live and connected students and teachers like never before. Integration with a visionary company such as BYJU’S will help take this idea to new heights and help unleash the remarkable creative potential of kids at a global scale.”
“WhiteHat Jr is the leader in the live online coding space. Karan has proven his mettle as an exceptional founder and the credit goes to him and his team for creating coding programs that are loved by kids. Under his leadership the company has achieved phenomenal growth in India and the US in a short span of time.” said BYJU’S founder and CEO Byju Raveendran says.
“Empowering children with the right future skills has always been part of our vision at BYJU’S and coding fits well into this. WhiteHat Jr’s coding product capabilities, combined with our pedagogy, expertise and scale, will help expand our learning offerings for school students.”,Raveendran adds.
WhiteHat Jr had recently announced their plans to expand to other global markets like Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) after a stellar growth in the US for its one-to-one online coding classes. After launching their courses in the US, since February this year, the company is growing at more than 100% MoM in the country.
Founded in November 2018, WhiteHat Jr. helps kids aged 6 to 14 years build commercial-ready games, animations and apps online using the fundamentals of coding. WhiteHat Jr. offers four levels of courses –
Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and Professional – for students in grades 1-9. Kids create complex games, animations and apps using logic, structure, sequence, commands and algorithmic thinking—in a live 1:1 online classroom. Early graduates of the course have created professional-ready apps downloadable on the App Store at ages as young as seven years old.
Launched in 2015, BYJU’S is the leader in offering personalised learning programs for school students in India. With 64 million students cumulatively learning from the app, 4.2 million annual paid subscriptions and an annual renewal rate of 85%, BYJU’S has witnessed phenomenal growth. The app creates personalized learning programs for individual students based on their proficiency levels and capabilities which help them learn at their own pace and style. BYJU’S doubled its revenue from INR 1430 crore to INR 2800 crore in FY 19-20.
Since the lockdown, BYJU’S has seen over 15 million new students start learning from its platform. With temporary closure of schools due to the ongoing pandemic, BYJU’S has become one of the only ways for students to continue learning. Last month, the company launched BYJU’S Classes, a comprehensive online tutoring program that addresses the need for personalised after-school learning solutions with scheduled engagement from India’s top teachers, live doubt solving and personalised mentoring. The company also launched learning programs for History, Civics and Geography. The company did over INR 500 crores in revenue last month.
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KPMG fines partner for using AI in internal AI exam
Partner fined A$10,000 after uploading training material to AI tool
AUSTRALIA: According to an Australian Financial Review report, a partner at KPMG Australia has been fined A$10,000 ($7,000) for using artificial intelligence tools to cheat on an internal training exam focused on AI itself, underscoring the growing challenges professional services firms face as staff adopt the technology.
The unnamed partner was required to retake the assessment after uploading training material into an AI platform to generate answers. KPMG said more than two dozen employees had been caught misusing AI in internal exams during the current financial year.
KPMG Australia chief executive Andrew Yates, said the firm was struggling to keep pace with the rapid uptake of AI. “Given the everyday use of these tools, some people breach our policy. We take it seriously when they do,” he said, adding that the firm was reviewing safeguards under its self-reporting regime.
The incident adds to broader concerns across the accounting profession. The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants last year scrapped remote examinations, citing the growing sophistication of cheating systems. All four Big Four firms have faced penalties linked to cheating scandals across multiple jurisdictions in recent years.
KPMG said it has adopted measures to detect AI misuse and will disclose the number of breaches in its annual results.
The case surfaced during a Senate inquiry into industry governance, where Greens senator Barbara Pocock criticised the lack of tougher consequences. Australia’s corporate regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, said it would not intervene unless disciplinary proceedings were initiated by the profession’s trade bodies.
