Whatfix appoints co-founder Vara Kumar CEO after Khadim Batti's death
The product architect takes over one week after Batti's death as Whatfix expands its enterprise software adoption products with AI agents and simulated training.
By RuntimeWire Staff · Published
Primary source: PR Newswire
Why it matters
Whatfix has kept leadership with the co-founder who shaped its technology and product strategy. Vara Kumar now has to turn that continuity into operating stability while defending an enterprise software category reshaped by AI and SAP's acquisition of WalkMe.
Whatfix appointed co-founder Vara Kumar Namburu as chief executive on September 8, one week after co-founder and CEO Khadim Batti died. The appointment was effective immediately, according to the company's succession announcement.
Kumar brings continuity from his existing product and technical role. He met Batti while working at Huawei Technologies, built an earlier software business with him and spent the past 12 years shaping Whatfix's product and research strategy. Whatfix said Kumar will lead alongside the existing executive group, with operations continuing across its customers, employees, partners and regions.
"Khadim was a visionary leader, a partner, and a dear friend," Kumar said in the announcement. He tied the succession to the premise the pair carried through two businesses: "technology should empower people, not stand in their way."
The lesson before Whatfix
Kumar earned a Master of Computer Applications from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in 2001 and joined Huawei, eventually becoming a system architect. He met Batti there, and the two later started SearchEnabler, a software product that helped small and midsize businesses with search engine optimization.
That first venture supplied the problem that became Whatfix. In an October 2025 interview, Kumar said SearchEnabler had a strong underlying product, but its founders underestimated how much help customers needed to use it. They added a "Fix It" button, then concluded that the larger opportunity lay in helping people navigate complicated software.
Kumar and Batti founded Whatfix in 2014 around that insight. Whatfix sells a digital adoption platform that adds guidance, self-service support and usage analytics to enterprise applications. Its software is designed to show employees how to complete tasks inside systems such as customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning and human capital management tools.
The founders called their approach "userization": software should adapt to the person using it, rather than making the person learn every quirk of the software. Kumar said in 2025 that customer feedback shaped more than half of Whatfix's product pipeline, a claim that captures how he has approached the product role he is now expanding into the top job.
A product architect inherits the operating chair
Batti served as Whatfix's public-facing CEO while Kumar led research and product strategy. Kumar's appointment keeps control with a founder who already knows the architecture, customers and product thesis.
It also places a technical founder in charge as Whatfix broadens beyond on-screen walkthroughs. Whatfix now combines in-application guidance with analytics, AI agents and Mirror, a simulated training environment where employees can practice workflows before entering production systems.
Whatfix launched Authoring, Guidance and Insights agents in 2025, then added AI-driven roleplay to Mirror. Those releases predate the CEO change, but they define the portfolio Kumar inherits. His job has widened from deciding what Whatfix builds to deciding where Whatfix invests, how it sells and which parts of the product suite become durable revenue lines.
The existing leadership group gives Kumar experienced operators across sales, product, engineering, marketing, finance and customer success. Whatfix said that group will continue working with Kumar following his appointment as CEO, effective September 8.
The business behind the succession
Whatfix last announced outside capital in September 2024, when it raised a $125 million Series E led by Warburg Pincus with participation from SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Whatfix said at the time that annual recurring revenue had increased 4.5 times since its 2021 financing and that products launched after that round generated 15% of revenue. Those figures were company-reported and tied to the September 2024 announcement.
In 2024, Whatfix reported more than 700 enterprise customers, including more than 80 Fortune 500 companies. Current revenue, annual recurring revenue and profitability have not been disclosed in the reviewed materials.
The competitive field has also changed since Whatfix raised its Series E. SAP completed its acquisition of WalkMe on September 12, 2024, bringing one of Whatfix's best-known rivals inside a major enterprise software vendor. Whatfix also competes with products from Pendo, Userlane, Apty and other vendors trying to turn software guidance into a broader layer for training, analytics and AI adoption.
That puts execution pressure on Kumar even as Whatfix emphasizes stability. The AI additions must produce repeatable enterprise sales, while the core digital adoption product must continue supporting customers running critical workplace systems. Kumar enters the role having designed much of that product direction himself.
Batti's memorial describes the organization's founding around ambition, curiosity, trust and the belief that technology should empower people rather than obstruct them.
The succession announcement presents Kumar's appointment as continuity under the existing executive team. Kumar now moves from directing Whatfix's product and research strategy to overseeing the company through its leadership transition.