White hat jr has filed a defamation case against Pradeep Poonia for its marketing tactics, the quality of the courses, and more.
The Story Behind
Byju’s Acquires White hat jr
- Byju’s has acquired ed-tech startup WhiteHat Jr. for $300 million
- The all-cash deal makes 18-month-old Mumbai-headquartered WhiteHat Jr., which offers online coding classes to school-going students in India and the U.S., the fastest exit story at this size in the Indian startup ecosystem.
- Byju Raveendran, the founder, and chief executive of the eponymous startup, said Byju’s will make “significant investments” in WhiteHat Jr. and hire more teachers to expand it to new markets.
Advertising body asks WhiteHat Jr to pull down ads
In a major blow to WhiteHat Jr, the Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) has asked Byju’s-owned kids coding startup to pull down its advertisements that it says made dubious and unsubstantiated claims.
Poonia released a series of tweets earlier this month and exposes white hat jr
Poonia released a series of tweets earlier this month, sharing internal Slack chats from the company. Poonia in turn has spoken about being harassed by the company and said that the videos and posts he would put up to show people that WhiteHat Jr was not providing quality education to its students are frequently subject to takedown notices and copyright claims. In his tweets, Poonia also talked about the teachers at WhiteHat Jr not having sufficient knowledge of tech kids coding, something that the company has refuted from Gadget 360
Tweets by Poonia
White Hat Jr has charged Pradeep Poonia
- WhiteHat Jr has filed a defamation case against Pradeep Poonia, an engineer who has publicly criticized the firm for its marketing tactics, the quality of the courses on the platform, and aggressive takedowns of such feedback.
- On Monday, WhiteHat Jr filed a similar case against Aniruddha Malpani, an investor who has shared unflattering feedback about the startup reported by TechCrunch
- In the lawsuit against Poonia, The company is seeking $2.7 million in damages — Poonia has been accused of infringing trademarks and copyright of properties owned by WhiteHat Jr, defaming and spreading misleading information about the startup and its founder, and accessing the company’s private communications app.
Delhi Court asks Poonia to takedown Tweets
The Court also directed Poonia to take down specific tweets dated 12.09.2020 regarding the number of teachers at WhiteHat Jr, 5.09.2020 alleging White hat jr. It is not a final decision in the case. The court will hear both sides in the next hearing scheduled on January 6, 2021.