Bhavin Turakhia’s CodeChef Splits From Unacademy

Mumbai-based competitive coding platform CodeChef said it will be splitting from edtech unicorn Unacademy starting in April, owing to the ongoing economic slowdown.

Following the split, CodeChef will be an independent company owned and run by the current team. Unacademy picked up CodeChef in 2020 for an undisclosed amount.

In a blog post uploaded Tuesday (March 28), the platform said it had not focussed on the financial viability of its operations, having been supported by Directi (founded by Turakhia) and Unacademy.

“But recently, due to the larger global economic slowdown, it has become clear that this cannot continue, and we need to find ways to sustain ourselves,” said CodeChef. The startup added that Unacademy is making a one-time investment to allow it to start operations independently.

“These are exciting times – the way we learn is going to completely change with the developments in AI. 90% of the users registering on the platform have ‘learn and practice’ as their primary goal,” the platform said.

However, following the split, CodeChef has paused several of its competitions, in a bid to reduce costs. “At the same time, till our finances improve, we have to cut back on our costs. As you have already noticed – we have paused Cook-Offs, Lunchtimes, and Long contests,” said the coding platform. 

“We’d like to thank Directi and Unacademy for their support over the years, and we hope to continue serving the amazing community in more ways going forward,” it added.

Founded in 2009 by Turakhia, who also founded fintech SaaS unicorn Zeta, CodeChef allows programmers to improve their skills by competing with their peers, while also learning in the process. It hosts programming competitions, training sessions and discussions related to programming concepts.

Apart from providing a platform for programming competitions, CodeChef also has various algorithm tutorials and forum discussions to help those who are new to the world of computer programming.

In July 2022, the company introduced CodeChef Pro, a premium subscription programme for users, with subscriptions starting from INR 3,999 per year. Before that, CodeChef was a non-profit company.

This split is also unlikely to cause any layoffs at CodeChef since it operates with a small team and with the Unacademy funding, the startup is said to be good for cash for the foreseeable future.

Speaking of layoffs, Unacademy has had a rough time lately, having fired more than 1,500 employees across subsidiaries over the past few months as it continues to restructure and realign its core business.