Inside the Story
- Vara Kumar becomes Whatfix CEO after Khadim Batti’s passing.
- Kumar co-founded Whatfix with Batti in 2014.
- He previously led product and research strategy.
- The company plans continued global growth under his leadership.
The Story
Introduction
Enterprise software company Whatfix has appointed co-founder Vara Kumar as its Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately, following the sudden passing of co-founder and former CEO Khadim Batti on September 1, 2026.
The appointment marks a leadership transition for the Bengaluru- and San Jose-based SaaS company as it enters its next phase of growth.
Kumar co-founded Whatfix with Batti in 2014 and has played a central role in the company’s product strategy, research and technology development. His appointment is intended to provide leadership continuity while maintaining the customer-focused culture established by the two founders.
Background: From Startup to Global SaaS Platform
Whatfix was founded in 2014 by Khadim Batti and Vara Kumar with a focus on making enterprise technology easier for employees and organisations to use.
The company subsequently developed into a Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) provider, helping enterprises improve software adoption through in-app guidance, analytics, training and workflow support.
The company’s platform addresses what is commonly called the technology adoption gap—the difference between purchasing enterprise software and actually achieving effective usage and business value from it.
Whatfix says its platform combines digital adoption, analytics, simulation training and intelligent agents.
Its current offering is positioned as an AI-native Digital Adoption Platform, designed to help users work with enterprise applications more effectively and identify areas where users experience friction.
The company’s customer base includes large global enterprises. Whatfix currently states that it serves 700+ customers across more than 30 countries, while recent reporting has highlighted customers including Fortune 500 companies.
Vara Kumar Takes Over as CEO
Kumar’s appointment brings a founder with deep technical and product experience into the CEO role.
Since co-founding Whatfix, Kumar has been responsible for the company’s product and research strategy, helping shape its technology roadmap as the startup expanded internationally.
Whatfix describes him as the architect of its product and research strategy and says he helped guide the company from an early-stage startup into a global digital adoption technology provider.
His responsibilities as CEO will now extend beyond product and technology into broader corporate operations, business strategy, customer relationships and organisational growth.
The transition also creates a degree of leadership continuity because Kumar has been closely involved with Whatfix since its founding.
Rather than bringing in an external executive, the company has elevated an existing founder who already understands its technology, customers, employees and long-term strategic direction.
Whatfix's Product and Technology Focus
Whatfix operates in the enterprise SaaS market, where businesses increasingly rely on complex software platforms for functions such as customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, cybersecurity, analytics and collaboration.
A major challenge for these businesses is software adoption. Purchasing an application does not automatically mean employees will use all of its capabilities effectively.
Whatfix’s DAP attempts to address this challenge through contextual guidance, workflow assistance and product analytics. The company says its technology enables users to access help within the flow of work while giving organisations visibility into where users struggle.
The company’s technology strategy has also expanded toward artificial intelligence. Whatfix describes its current platform as AI-native and says it combines digital adoption capabilities with intelligent agents and analytics.
This places the company within a broader enterprise technology trend in which SaaS providers are attempting to combine AI automation, workflow intelligence and user analytics rather than offering software tools in isolation.
Leadership Continuity After Khadim Batti
Kumar’s appointment follows the death of Khadim Batti, who co-founded Whatfix with him in 2014 and served as CEO until his passing.
Whatfix described Batti as a visionary leader who placed strong emphasis on customer empathy, talent development and mentorship. The company said his legacy extended beyond the product itself to the organisational culture and leadership team he helped build.
Batti’s leadership was also instrumental in taking Whatfix from an early-stage startup toward a global enterprise software business. According to the company’s account, the organisation had achieved sustained growth and built a significant international customer base during his tenure.
The leadership transition therefore represents both a change in executive responsibility and an effort to preserve the company’s founding principles.
Kumar said the founders shared a belief that technology should empower people rather than create barriers to productivity. He also indicated that the executive leadership team would remain committed to supporting Whatfix’s global customers and partners.
Industry Impact
The appointment comes at an important time for the enterprise SaaS industry.
Companies are increasingly investing in cloud applications and AI-powered software, but achieving measurable returns from those investments remains a major challenge. This has increased demand for technologies that can improve user adoption, employee productivity and software utilisation.
For Whatfix, Kumar’s technical background could reinforce the company’s focus on product innovation while his new CEO responsibilities will require balancing technology development with commercial expansion.
The company also has backing from prominent investors including Warburg Pincus, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Dragoneer, Peak XV Partners, Eight Roads Ventures and Cisco Investments.
With its global customer base and continued focus on AI-native digital adoption, the company is positioned to pursue further expansion in the enterprise software market.
What Comes Next for Whatfix
The immediate priority for Whatfix is likely to be business continuity and execution following the leadership change. The company has stated that operations continue across regions with support from its executive team and board.
Under Kumar, the company will need to balance several strategic priorities: maintaining customer retention, expanding its enterprise customer base, advancing AI capabilities, strengthening its product portfolio and sustaining growth while preserving its existing organisational culture.
For the wider SaaS industry, the transition also highlights the importance of succession planning in founder-led technology companies. When a founder is deeply connected to a company’s product vision and culture, an internal leadership transition can help reduce disruption while allowing the organisation to maintain strategic continuity.
Conclusion
Whatfix’s appointment of Vara Kumar as CEO represents a significant leadership transition for the enterprise SaaS company following Khadim Batti’s passing. As a co-founder and long-time leader of product and research strategy, Kumar brings extensive institutional knowledge to the role.
The company now enters its next phase under one of its original architects, with its focus remaining on digital adoption, AI-native enterprise software, customer value and global expansion.
The transition will be closely watched as Whatfix seeks to preserve the principles established by its founders while adapting its technology and business strategy to a rapidly changing enterprise software market.
Technical Terms Explained
- SaaS (Software as a Service) — Software delivered through the internet, generally through subscriptions rather than traditional one-time installations.
- Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) — Technology that helps employees understand and effectively use enterprise software through guidance, training and analytics.
- AI-Native Platform — A software platform designed with artificial intelligence as a core part of its architecture and functionality rather than as an added feature.
- Product Strategy — A company’s long-term plan for developing, positioning and improving its products according to customer and market requirements.
- Product Analytics — The collection and analysis of user behaviour data to understand how customers interact with software and identify areas for improvement.
- Software Adoption — The extent to which employees or customers actually use and derive value from a software product.
- Workflow Automation — Using software or AI to perform repetitive tasks or processes with limited manual intervention.
- Technology Adoption Gap — The gap between an organisation acquiring technology and employees successfully using that technology to achieve expected business outcomes.