Acquisition · Education & Skilling

UpGrad to acquire Unacademy in all-stock deal

What they do

Unacademy is an online learning platform with over 10 crore learners and 200+ exam categories

UpGrad is acquiring Unacademy in an all-stock deal valued at about ₹2,055 crore, a 90% drop from its peak valuation

The deal reflects consolidation in the edtech sector as valuations have fallen sharply from 2021 highs

UpGrad is nearing an all-stock acquisition of Unacademy at a valuation of about ₹2,055 crore ($218 million).
This valuation marks a over 90% decline from Unacademy's peak valuation of $3.4 billion in 2021.
Unacademy has ₹900-950 crore in cash on its books at closing.
Binding agreements are expected in the coming days, and a CCI approval application will be filed this week.
Co-founder Gaurav Munjal is expected to remain CEO after the deal, with AI central to the next phase.
Unacademy has raised a total of about $830-880 million from investors including Temasek, Peak XV Partners, and Elevation Capital.
UpGrad has raised about $330 million and was last valued at about $2 billion.
Temasek is a common investor, holding about 22% in upGrad and about 5% in Unacademy.

The acquisition reflects a major correction in edtech valuations from the 2021 peak.
Unacademy's cash reserves of nearly ₹1,000 crore provide a strong balance sheet for the combined entity.
The deal consolidates two large Indian edtech players under common investor Temasek.
UpGrad is also in talks for an internal round of about ₹375 crore from existing backers including Temasek.

Unacademy was founded in 2010 as a YouTube channel and evolved into a full edtech platform in 2015.
It is India's largest learning platform with over 10 crore learners and 200+ exams across 60+ exam categories.
The platform offers 1,500+ daily live classes, has 3.2 billion+ minutes watched, and 14,000+ educators.
It provides live classes, practice tests, mock tests, lecture notes PDFs, and doubt clearing, all under one subscription for all devices.
Popular exam goals include UPSC CSE, IIT JEE, NEET UG, Bank exams, SSC JE, CAT, CBSE class 12, and CA Intermediate.
Unacademy expanded into offline coaching centres but later reversed to a franchise-led model and exited company-operated centres.
It conducted a ₹50 crore ESOP buyback and exited company-operated offline centres.

Binding agreements are expected in the coming days.
CCI approval application will be filed this week.
Gaurav Munjal will remain CEO with AI as a central focus.
UpGrad is in talks for an internal round of about ₹375 crore from existing backers including Temasek.

Temasek (existing) — Common investor holding about 22% in upGrad and about 5% in Unacademy.
Peak XV Partners (existing) — Investor in Unacademy.
Elevation Capital (existing) — Investor in Unacademy.