Remember that company BYJU’s? It certainly made its mark on the Indian startup ecosystem, although that mark might actually be a black stain. Amongst all the startups that BYJU’s ambitiously acquired, one of them was WhiteHat, which like Robert Downey, is a Jr. The startup, which was said to specialize in teaching coding and math skills to kids, was said to be bought by BYJU’s for $300 million in an all-cash deal.
WhiteHat Jr, which was less than 2 years old when it was acquired, kind of, became a household name almost overnight.
Though, in February 2023, there was speculation that BYJU’s was considering shutting down WhiteHat Jr due to growing losses, pressure to cut costs and restructuring. However, BYJU’s seems to consistently and publicly deny those shutdown rumours. Yeah, take the word of BYJU’s, you can trust them. Nonetheless, WhiteHat Jr doesn’t seem to be operational anymore, though it did become rebranded as “BYJU’s Future School” at the time. Seems like plans to launch the Future School in multiple countries, like the US, the UK, Australia, Mexico and more fell through.
At the same time, the sheen around BYJU’s, which was once India’s most valuable startup, was dimming. There seemed to be a financial liquidity crisis, allegations of financial mismanagement, loan default issues, legal, regulatory and corporate governance issues, overly aggressive sale tactics, halted teacher payments, a substantial marking down of valuation, a major fall in investor confidence and more. Looks like WhiteHat Jr – being part of BYJU’s – had to go down with the ship.
Though, it’s not like WhiteHat Jr was sans its own controversies. It was sued by a US-based non-profit over payment dues and violating a license contract. Plus, WhiteHat Jr was said to be subject to controversies, like misleading ads, allegedly filing defamation lawsuits against critics and more.
So, what do you do when you’ve built a startup that gets acquired by one of India’s biggest startups and then, that parent company seems to mar the reputation of Indian startups and the EdTech ecosystem in general? That’s a question Karan Bajaj, founder of WhiteHat Jr, may have had to contend with, keeping in mind the dizzying highs and humbling lows he may have dealt with. Imagine telling someone you’re a founder, them asking, “Oh, which startup?”, you having to uncomfortably disclose it’s that startup synonymous with BYJU’s and you seeing the smile slowly disappear from their face. They might awkwardly move away and talk to someone else at the party.
After exiting from WhiteHat, it’s said that Karan founded an NGO to alleviate poverty and went on a pilgrimage. Everyone goes the Eat, Pray, Love and Arrested Development route at some point. Time to reset and crystallize what the next move might be.
In 2025, Karan seems to be focusing on a different kind of sector altogether: cancer care. To the cynical eye, this might seem like a branding move. Oh, you were part of a terrible ecosystem and now, to be seen as cool again, you want to help cure cancer. Nice try… right?
Karan co-founded a startup called Complement1, which was said to be an AI-powered platform focused on providing lifestyle help for those afflicted by cancer and those who survived the macabre disease. Looks like everything these days is powered by AI. In May 2025, it was announced that Karan’s startup Complement1 had secured about $16 million in seed funding for the startup in a round led by Owl and Blume.
The need might certainly be there. It’s said that cancer prevention lifestyle recommendations were associated with close to a 60% reduction in mortality and close to a 40% reduction in disease recurrence. And Complement1 claims that its approach might lead to a 30% reduction in healthcare costs across cancer patients. Though, don’t get your hopes up, yet, India: Complement1 seems to be for the US market.
With WhiteHat, if they gave kids and parents false hope, it’d be pretty bad, but if they do it at Complement1, it might be a bit more fatal. Or maybe is false hope what’s needed to keep them going? Think O Henry’s “The Last Leaf”. If the operational realities don’t match what’s being advertised, it’s far scarier. Interestingly, both startups have human coaches.
Healthcare’s all about that B2B2C, so LTV literally is about lifetime value, because there might not be much life left if things go awry. A startup founder in India might have imported the blitzscaling playbook from seeing how some startups grow in Silicon Valley. Maybe, the idea with EdTech might be to grow first, refinement can come later; will a cancer care startup allow for that? It’s kind of cool to be a generalist, but hopefully, Karan and team have developed the requisite deep domain knowledge to handle this.
It’s not like founders stick to only 1 startup their entire lives. But, it’s cool how there seems to be a trend of second-time founders emerging after crises or issues with a successful or established venture they founded. Trying to repay that trust debt? Anywhere they go, there’s history casting horns that have nothing to do with their current venture. Walking back into an arena after the crowd has already jeered you. Investors might have burned their fingers once, but, fortunately, for Karan, they’re willing to give him a second glance and a second chance. This is the fall-from-grace founder’s version of a work-release programme, maybe.
Ashneer Grover has Third Unicorn after exiting BharatPe. Rahul Yadav launched Intelligent Interfaces after infamously exiting from Housing.com. Ousted WeWork founder Adam Neumann had raised $100 million for his startup Flow valuing it at about $2.5 billion, though, there are some concerns that not much is going on with the startup. Hello, Neumann. Elizabeth Holmes, who’s serving a decade-plus sentence in US federal prison for corporate governance issues with her startup Theranos, is supporting her husband who’s raising millions of dollars for an AI startup in the medical testing space. Who’s really running the show there? Fool me once, shame on you.
Even Bjyu is trying to get the public back on his side and go mea culpa, but unsure whether this would work. If the Gensol-BluSmart founders build their next startup around, say, removing microplastics from water, who’s getting on board? Of course, it’s one thing if a founder was naive and things went lopsided, so they’re starting anew, but what about those who knew what they were doing and are hitting restart?
Is this an Alicia Florrick-esque comeback story that these so-called “disgraced” founders want to have? Or is the innate restlessness of wanting to build something and starting from scratch? Failure might scar, but it might also sharpen. Though, how many of these founders are really victims? Maybe, they flew too close to the sun and now, they’re humbled and sobered to want to do things the right way. How will they look at what’s considered to be “vanity metrics”? Would they, like Karan may be trying to do, be more inclined to solve problems that truly plague society? Maybe, to some extent, it’s a response to the pitfalls of a venture that may have once been beloved, but gradually started receiving brickbats.
Befitting the oncology theme of Karan’s new startup, can these second-time founders do no harm? They want some sunshine, they want some rain. Are you giving them a second chance to grow their startup once again?
