Game Streaming Platform Rheo TV Gets Acquired By Edtech Giant Unacademy

Edtech platform Unacademy today announced that it had acquired Rheo TV, a platform that helps professional game streamers livestream their gameplays and monetize those feeds. 

As part of the deal, Unacademy will fully acquire Rheo TV, and enable the exit of all existing investors. This includes names such as Lightspeed India Partners, Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, AET Fund, founder and former CEO of RedBus Phanindra Sama, and former country head of Google Mobile Mahesh Narayanan. 

Founded in August 2019 by Saksham Keshri and Prakash Kumar, Rheo TV works towards making professional game streaming a mainstream career option in India by building an entertainment ecosystem that drives engagement and monetization. The company stated that within a year of launch, the platform amassed more than 5 Mn users and over 10,000 livestreamers.

Post the acquisition, Rheo TV founders Saksham Keshri and Prakash Kumar will join Unacademy’s Relevel as cofounders. An Unacademy Group company, Relevel looks to operate in the Indian job market by enabling job-seekers to showcase their skills through tests, and secure employment at some of India’s top companies.

Founded in 2015 by Munjal, Hemesh Singh, Roman Saini and Sachin Gupta, Unacademy claims to have 40 Mn registered users and around 3,50,000 paying subscribers. The startup claims that its user base is very high in Tier II and Tier III for both Unacademy and Mastree. He noted that 70% of their user base comes from small towns.

Unacademy has acquired six companies in India till date. This includes postgraduate medical entrance exam preparation platform PrepLadder for $50 Mn, test prep platform Kreatryx for GATE and ESE segments, Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) test preparation platform Coursavy, and Mumbai-based competitive programming platform CodeChef.

While the edtech unicorn does plan on going public in the long run, it stated that it is looking to particularly focus on the test prep vertical and become cash-flow positive in 2021.

It is important to note that Unacademy reported a 4x increase in its revenue in FY2020 to INR 86 Cr. Besides this, it also recorded a 3.4x increase in expenses to INR 386.7 Cr, leading to a net loss of INR 112 Cr.

Unacademy’s deal with Rheo TV follows the recent surge of the gaming industry in India. Investor interest is increasing in the space as well. Nazara went for an IPO, MTG acquired PlaySimple for $360Mn, and WinZo raised $65Mn in Series C, all in 2021. From INR 136 Bn revenue and 433 Mn gamers today, the market is expected to reach a revenue of INR 290 Bn and 657 Mn gamers by 2025.