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Yes, we are in M&A talks: Unacademy's Gaurav Munjal

EntrackrEntrackr · 9d ago
Yes, we are in M&A talks: Unacademy's Gaurav Munjal
Medial

Yes, we are in M&A talks: Unacademy's Gaurav Munjal Munjal’s remarks come amid media reports that higher education and skilling platform upGrad is in talks to acquire Unacademy at a valuation of $300 to 320 million. “Yes, we are in M&A conversations, and yes, if we find a win-win situation where consolidation can lead to a stronger entity, we will go ahead with this,” Unacademy co-founder Gaurav Munjal said in a post on social media platform X. Munjal’s remarks come amid media reports that higher education and skilling platform upGrad is in talks to acquire Unacademy at a valuation of $300 to 320 million, nearly 90% lower than the startup’s peak valuation of about $3.5 billion during the 2021 funding boom. In a detailed post, Munjal reflected on Unacademy’s journey, which began as a YouTube channel in 2010 that he started while in college to help friends with computer science concepts. The platform was formally launched in December 2015 and quickly scaled by focusing on free content, strong educator communities, and a tech-first approach to learning. The company saw rapid growth between 2019 and 2021 after launching its subscription product, reaching close to one million paid subscribers and raising over $700 million across multiple funding rounds. However, Munjal said the post-Covid shift of learners back to offline coaching, aggressive cash burn, and the rise of lower priced competitors hurt the business. He acknowledged that Unacademy might now be valued at less than $500 million, compared to around $3.5 billion three years ago, and noted that chasing valuation earlier led to several strategic missteps. Over the past three years, Unacademy has cut costs sharply, reduced its annual burn from about Rs 1,400 crore in 2022 to under Rs 175 crore in 2025, lowered pricing, and refocused on content and subscriptions. For FY25, the SoftBank-backed firm reported Rs 826 crore revenue and reduced its net losses by 31% year-on-year to Rs 436 crore. While consolidation remains an option, Munjal said the company is now focused on building sustainable education products with strong unit economics rather than pursuing headline valuations.

Exclusive: No appraisal for Unacademy employees in 2024

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Exclusive: No appraisal for Unacademy employees in 2024
Medial

Employees of edtech unicorn Unacademy will receive no appraisal in 2024, co-founder and chief executive officer Gaurav Munjal said at the firm’s virtual town hall. Even in 2023, it had not given cash appraisal and instead provided performance-linked stock options to employees. “I think 2023 was an average year for us. But 2024, if not great, was above average. But we did not hit our growth goals. The good part is that the burn is extremely low now, and we have a huge runway. And I kept saying that we don’t have a survival risk,” said Munjal in the town hall. Entrackr has reviewed the video of the virtual town hall. As per Munjal, the company won’t be able to do any appraisals this year as it didn’t hit the projected growth numbers. “I know I said that we will do appraisals two, three weeks ago, but when we started the process, we realized that we made a mistake,” he said in the town hall. Munjal urged its workforce to look at the bigger picture. “We are the ones who are still standing while our competitors are going down one by one,” he said. Entrackr has reached out to Munjal for comment. The development comes soon after the company laid off 250 employees citing efforts to streamline operations and enhance efficiency. Last month, Entrackr also reported that the SoftBank-backed firm was in early-talks to merge with K12 Techno which runs the chain of Orchids International Schools. Unacademy raised its last equity round of $440 million at a valuation of $3.44 billion in August 2021. Since then, the firm has gone through mass layoffs, shutting down acquired verticals and exits of key employees including co-founder and CTO Hemesh Singh. Though, it has also launched several offline centers. The firm recently forayed into the language learning segment with a new app. In the beginning of FY24, the company claimed that it was close to achieving profitability at the group level. While the firm is yet to file the audited annual report for the last fiscal year (FY24), it recorded a 26% jump in its operating revenue to Rs 907 crore in FY23 while controlling losses by nearly 40% to Rs 1,004 core. Edtech companies have been going through hard times whether it is once-most valuable edtech company Byju’s or several growth stage startups. As per data compiled by TheKredible, edtech companies managed to raise only $138 million across 21 deals during the first half of 2024. In 2023, edtech startups raised $456 million while 2022 and 2021 saw $2.3 billion and $5.8 billion deployment in the space, respectively.

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