Unacademy has completed its acquisition by UpGrad for just over $200 million, marking a sharp reset in value for the edtech company six years after it became a unicorn.
Unacademy co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal acknowledged the valuation gap candidly, saying: “We raised at a peak, but sold at a fraction of that.” He said he was not going to “dress these facts up”, while expressing pride in what the company built between those two points.
Munjal's comments came in a LinkedIn post marking six years since Unacademy became a unicorn. The transaction values the company at roughly one-fifth of its unicorn-era valuation, underscoring the dramatic correction in India's edtech sector since the funding boom.
Despite the lower exit valuation, Munjal said Unacademy entered the deal from a position of financial strength. The company had a topline of around Rs 400 crore, with most of its businesses profitable or near-profitable, and Rs 900 crore in the bank.
“Nobody was forcing this,” Munjal said, explaining that the company could have continued independently. The decision instead came after discussions with UpGrad founder Ronnie Screwvala and a growing belief that combining with UpGrad represented a more compelling path for the education ecosystem.
Munjal also highlighted Unacademy's impact beyond its financial value. The platform helped create a generation of celebrity educators, whose YouTube videos collectively crossed 10 billion views. Its language-learning product Airlearn, meanwhile, became one of the world's top three most downloaded language-learning apps in less than two years.
The founders had initially set out to democratise education, but Munjal acknowledged that Unacademy “didn't end up capturing all the economic value of that mission.” Still, he argued that the company changed the way online education looked in India and that its products became templates for the broader sector.
The acquisition also comes after Unacademy conducted four ESOP buybacks, which Munjal said created real value for employees even as founders and investors did not create as much value for themselves.
Essential Business Intelligence, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice, Daily Fuel, Gold and Silver Prices and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
