Bengaluru-based edtech startup Unacademy has raised ₹350 crores from Steadview Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Blume Ventures and Sequoia India. The company’s founders Gaurav Munjal and Roman Saini also participated in the funding round in persona capacity along with co-founder of Haptik Aakrit Vaish and co-founder of Udaan, Sujeet Kumar.
Founded by Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini, Hemesh Singh, and Sachin Gupta in 2011, the company initially started as a YouTube channel that offered tutorials. In January 2015, the startup started providing free learning lessons on every possible topic in multiple languages.
Commenting on the fundraise, CEO Unacademy, Munjal said, “Our mission has been to provide every learner in the country access to the highest quality of education. We are seeing unprecedented growth and engagement from learners in smaller towns and cities, and are also very humbled to see that top-quality educators are choosing Unacademy as their primary platform to reach out to students. In the last few months, we have taken bigger strides toward achieving this mission.”
Unacademy has raised a total of ₹620.2 crores in total funding to date. Earlier in July 2018, the startup raised ₹147 crores in Series C funding from SAIF Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, and Sequoia India. In 2016, serial entrepreneurs such as Sachin Bansal, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Binny Bansal, Kunal Shah, Sandeep Tandon, Ashish Tulsian (Posist) have invested ₹3.5 crores in the company.
The startup has a network of 400 educators from across the country who take live classes every day on Unacademy Plus. The edtech startup leverages technology and high-quality educators to democratize education at all levels. As of 2019, Unacademy has achieved more than 10 crore monthly views across its various platforms like Toppers, The Solutionists, Unacademy Plus, Wifistudy, Chamomile Tea and Unacademy Studios. The startup’s YouTube channel has more than 1.1 crore subscribers as of date.
In 2018, Unacademy acquired Jaipur-based online education portal WifiStudy for an undisclosed amount in a cash and stock deal. The acquisition helped the startup to expand its presence in tier-II and tier-II towns and cities where WifiStudy had a wider student-base.
The edtech segment in India will touch ₹13,720 crores mark by 2021. More than 3,500 startups are active in this space. The biggest investment in the edtech sector went to Byju’s when the firm raised around ₹3,780 crores as a part of its Series F round from General Atlantic and Tencent.
