BalrajUnacademy Group has secured $440 million (~Rs 3,270.8 crore) in the new Series H fundraising round backed by Singaporean holding company Temasek, with existing investors such as SoftBank, Tiger Global, and General Atlantic, according to co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal. The fundraising round was also participated by Mirae Asset, Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal, and OYO Rooms founder Ritesh Agarwal.
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The six-year-old startup is now valued at $3.44 billion (~Rs 25,571.8 crore), significantly higher compared to $2 billion in November of last year. Unacademy has raised around $860 million to date in total funding. According to the statement, the Unacademy Group’s valuation has nearly doubled in the previous 18 months, making it one of the fastest-growing mid-stage consumer tech startups in India.
The fresh capital will be used to expand Unacademy’s three products, including the recently introduced Relevel and Graphy, according to Gaurav Munjal, co-founder & CEO. Graphy encourages innovators to develop their online companies to sell digital commodities, including NFTs, meanwhile, Relevel assists people to find their desired job regardless of their educational background.
The coronavirus pandemic has strengthened the demand for online education since students and professionals focus on enhancing their knowledge while schools and offices are closed. Byju’s, another Indian online educational platform, has grown to become the country’s most valued startup and is rapidly growing through acquisitions.
Unacademy originally started on YouTube and continues to use Google’s streaming platform to enroll educators, assists students in preparing for challenging examinations in order to get into university, as well as those trying to pursue graduate-level courses. Students can attend live classes from professionals on the app and then participate in discussions to go over topics in greater depth.
On its platform, the ed-tech startup has over 50,000 educators, many of whom are well-known on YouTube. According to market analysts familiar with the business arrangement, these educators assist Unacademy to sell more subscriptions in exchange for a commission. Unacademy now boasts over 6 million monthly active users (including over 600,000 paying subscribers) across over 10,000 cities in India.
Unacademy, which was founded by Munjal, Hemesh Singh, with Roman Saini, now offers test preparation solutions for civil services exams, engineering entrance exams, as well as medical entrance exams, among several other subjects. It has also ventured into other education sub-domains, such as tutoring programs for teenagers, by acquiring other ed-tech startups. Unacademy Group now includes Unacademy, Graphy, Relevel, and CodeChef in its portfolio of online educational platforms. Since its founding, Unacademy has acquired around 10 startups.
Unacademy additionally unveiled Teacher Stock Options (TSOPs) for its educators last week. Over the next few years, the firm will offer over $40 million to all educators on its platforms as part of the initiative. Over 300 educators, according to Munjal, are already qualifying for the incentive, which they will receive straightaway.