upGrad closes Unacademy buyout at $206M, 94% below its 2021 peak
What's the deal? Ronnie Screwvala-led upGrad has completed its all-stock acquisition of rival edtech Unacademy at a valuation of just over $200 million, or ₹19.55 billion (about $206 million). That marks a 94% drop from Unacademy's peak valuation of about $3.44 billion in 2021.
The terms: The deal is a 100% share swap, so Unacademy's shareholders receive upGrad shares, while angel investors were cashed out at closing. Co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal, who confirmed the close on X, will continue to lead Unacademy, and no layoffs are planned across its roughly 1,000 staff.
What each side gets: upGrad, focused on higher education and professional upskilling, gains a foothold in competitive exam preparation — including UPSC, JEE, NEET, and GATE — plus Unacademy's brand, educator network, and businesses such as PrepLadderDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and Graphy. Its language-learning app AirlearnDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, which serves 10 million users across more than 150 countries, is also part of the deal.
Why sell? Munjal said Unacademy was not forced out by a cash crunch. It carries roughly ₹4 billion (about $42 million) in annual revenue and about ₹9 billion (about $95 million) in the bank, with most units profitable or near it. "We raised at a peak, but sold at a fraction of that," he wrote. "I'm not going to dress these facts up."
The rationale: Leadership concluded that reaching scale or an eventual public listing would require expanding into more areas of education, and joining upGrad's larger offline presence offered that route. Screwvala praised Unacademy's "product and tech-first thinking" and its "ability to look at a completely different target audience."
Alongside: The close came the same week InsuranceDekho and RenewBuy completed a share-swap merger, creating a platform with an annual premium book above ₹66 billion under the InsuranceDekho brand — a separate deal, but another sign of consolidation sweeping India's startup sectors.
The signal: Founded in 2015, Unacademy raised about $880 million from backers including SoftBankDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Tiger Global, and General Atlantic. Its markdown caps a sharp reversal for Indian edtech after pandemic-era highs — the same downturn that pushed once-$22 billion ByjuDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →'s into insolvency in 2024.
Read more: entrackr.com, economictimes.indiatimes.com, TechCrunch, inc42.com
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
