India’s Unacademy sells to rival upGrad for $206M, about 94% less than its peak valuation
Indian edtech startup Unacademy has been acquired by rival upGrad for $206 million, a significant drop from its 2021 peak valuation of $3.44 billion. The deal follows a period of intense cost-cutting and restructuring as the company navigated the post-pandemic decline in demand for online learning.
Why it matters
This acquisition underscores the 'correction' phase for pandemic-era edtech unicorns that expanded too rapidly during the lockdown boom.
Unacademy , once one of India’s most valuable edtech startups, has been acquired by rival upGrad at a valuation of just over $200 million, about 94% less than its 2021 peak valuation.
The all-stock deal values Unacademy at ₹19.55 billion (about $206 million), upGrad’s co-founder and chairperson Ronnie Screwvala told TechCrunch. Unacademy shareholders are receiving upGrad shares as part of the transaction, while angel investors were cashed out at closing, Screwvala said.
On Monday, Unacademy co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal said in a post on X that the deal had closed, nearly six months after the transaction was first announced in March . The Bengaluru-based startup, backed by SoftBank, Tiger Global, General Atlantic and other global investors, was valued at $3.44 billion at its peak in 2021 .
“We raised at a peak, but sold at a fraction of that,” he wrote. “I’m not going to dress these facts up.”
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