70% Of Unacademy’s Offline Centres To Turn Profitable In 2025: CEO Gaurav Munjal

Amid the ongoing slowdown in the country’s edtech sector, Unacademy cofounder and CEO Gaurav Munjal has claimed that 70% of the startup’s offline centres are on track to turn profitable in 2025. 

Reportedly, Unacademy’s offline centres contributed 40% of its total revenue in 2024.

Giving business updates on X, after the edtech startup’s townhall today, Munjal said that Unacademy is focussed on turning its “core business” profitable and will not be distracted by competitors’ acquisition strategies. 

Reflecting on the inorganic expansion strategy of edtech companies, Munjal said that pursuing growth through multiple acquisitions has not worked for edtech companies in India.

“Any edtech (and we have made this mistake in the past) that goes after multiple acquisitions to grow is bound to fail. It just doesn’t work in this market. So keeping the “Blinders on” and not worrying about who is acquiring whom and focusing on profit is the only way to go,” Munjal said.’

The CEO highlighted that some of the businesses owned by Unacademy, like Graphy and PrepLadder, are “generating cash each month”. 

Talking about its language learning app Airlearn, Munjal reflected that the app is its fastest growing product with almost 70K daily active users and $2 Mn in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in the last 12 months. 

Airlearn is a language learning app that aims to make learning a new language engaging and accessible. It offers languages like Spanish, French,Spanish, French, German, Italian, Dutch, among others. It focusses on teaching language concepts first, followed by practice, and includes cultural insights to create a comprehensive learning experience.

The startup announced its foray into the language learning space in June 2024 when Munjal unveiled ‘Unacademy: Learn a language (ULL)’. It was later renamed to Airlearn. The app has got over 5 Lakh downloads on Google Play Store. 

Overall, Munjal claimed that Unacademy has significantly reduced its cash burn in its core business and will reduce it by nearly 50% year-on-year to under INR 200 Cr in 2025. He added that this number was at around INR 1,000 Cr three years ago.

It is pertinent to note that the edtech unicorn managed to trim its standalone net loss by 82.09% to INR 285 Cr in FY24 from INR 1,592 Cr in FY23. Its operating revenue also declined 2% to INR 716 Cr from INR 733 Cr in FY23.

Last year, there were reports about the acquisition of Unacademy. In December, it was reported that Allen was in talks to buy Unacademy, once valued at $3.4 Bn, for about $800 Mn. Prior to that, it was reported that Unacademy was eyeing a merger or acquisition with K-12 Techno. 

To put a full stop on the acquisition rumours, Munjal clarified that the edtech startup was not looking for any such deal and was eyeing sustained growth over a long-term. “We are building Unacademy for the long run. We are not doing any sale or M&A. Ignore the rumours,” he said in a post on X in December 2024.