Edtech company upGrad, led by Ronnie Screwvala, has completed its acquisition of Unacademy for just over $200 million, according to Unacademy co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal.
Munjal, in a post on X, said, “Six years ago today, Unacademy became a unicorn. Today, Unacademy has closed its acquisition by UpGrad for just over $200M.”
He added, “We raised at a peak, but sold at a fraction of that.”
The acquisition value represents a significant decline from Unacademy’s peak valuation of $3.44 billion. The difference between the two figures is approximately $3.24 billion, representing a decline of about 94% from its peak valuation.
Unacademy was founded by Gaurav Munjal along with Roman Saini, Hemesh Singh and Sumit Jain. Munjal said the company was initially started with the mission to “democratise education.”
“When @RomanSaini and I started Unacademy with @hemezh and @sumjain, the mission was to democratise education. We didn't end up capturing all the economic value of that mission. But we changed what online education looks like in this country, and the products we built became the template for the entire sector,” he said.
Munjal also highlighted the role of educators, saying Unacademy’s free platform helped create a generation of celebrity educators. He said the total YouTube videos by Unacademy educators have reached 100 billion views.
“Unacademy's free platform created a generation of celebrity educators. Educators are a cornerstone of any economy, and they should be celebrated, and our platform enabled that in our country,” Munjal said.
He also pointed to Airlearn, which, according to his post, became one of the top three most downloaded language-learning apps globally within two years of its launch.
Munjal said Unacademy had a topline of around ₹400 crore and ₹900 crore in the bank, indicating that the company was not under pressure to sell.
“Nobody was forcing this. But sometimes, you are drawn towards a path that is more exciting than the one that makes you more money,” he said.
Munjal also said he was inspired by Ronnie Screwvala’s vision for education in India and had long believed that working with him would be an exciting opportunity.
“The more we did, the clearer it got: this is a better path for the ecosystem, not just for us,” he added.
