No Takers For Unacademy, Mumbai Funding 2025 & More

upGrad-Unacademy M&A Talks Collapse

upGrad’s bid to acquire rival Unacademy has fallen through. The Ronnie Screwvala-led edtech unicorn walked away from the deal after the two sides disagreed on price. So, what went wrong after months of talks?

The Valuation Conundrum: The deal collapsed as Unacademy was seeking a valuation of $300 Mn to $400 Mn, but there was no clarity on the valuation upGrad was willing to offer. With the exam-prep market saturated and user retention under pressure, upGrad appears to have been unwilling to absorb the distressed company at the inflated price tag.

Unacademy Up For Sale: The collapse comes barely a month after cofounder and group CEO Gaurav Munjal confirmed, for the first time, that the startup was open to being sold. He had also acknowledged that Unacademy’s valuation had likely plummeted to below $500 Mn, just 14% of its $3.5 Bn 2021 peak. 

The startup has been in acquisition talks with multiple companies, including K-12 Techno Services, Allen and upGrad, over the past 18 months amid a broader post-pandemic slowdown in the edtech sector.

The Fall From Edtech Highs: Unacademy’s collapse from a unicorn to a distressed asset reflects the edtech sector’s brutal truth. While the startup rode the pandemic boom, it couldn’t sustain growth. High burn rates, exam-prep saturation, weak retention and failed acquisitions squeezed margins and capital. Exits of cofounders, including Munjal and Roman Saini, also signal deep internal stress.

With upGrad now out of the picture, the troubled edtech startup faces fewer options. So, will it engineer a turnaround, or settle for a lower valuation? For now, here is how the upGrad-Unacademy merger talks fell apart. 

From The Editor’s Desk

💰 Mumbai 2025 Funding Report 

• Startups based out of India’s financial hub raised $2.1 Bn across 146 deals in 2025, slipping to third place behind Bengaluru’s $4.6 Bn and Delhi NCR’s $2.2 Bn. Funding tanked 45.5% YoY from $3.7 Bn in 2024.
• Ecommerce emerged as the most-funded sector, with Infra.Market, PharmEasy, and Truemeds raising big rounds. Fintech players like Snapmint, Dhan, InCred, and Infinity Fincorp Solutions also attracted marquee capital.
• In total, Mumbai startups have bagged $24 Bn in the past decade, accounting for 14% of India’s total startup funding. The city is also home to 18 unicorns, 34 soonicorns and 14 minicorns.

🚀 2026’s First Startup IPO

• Amagi, the media-focussed SaaS unicorn, has filed its RHP with SEBI for an INR 1,788 Cr IPO. The public issue will open on January 13 and close on January 16, with a tentative listing on January 21.
• The public issue will comprise a fresh issue of INR 816 Cr and an OFS component worth INR 1,020 Cr. The SaaS major has set a price band of INR 343-361, implying a valuation of INR 7,966 Cr on the upper band.
• Founded in 2008, Amagi offers cloud-native tech that connects media companies to audiences across the video value chain. The unicorn clocked a profit of INR 6.5 Cr in H1 FY26 against an operating revenue of INR 704.8 Cr.

💸 Spector.ai Bags INR 58 Cr 

• The AI startup has raised $6.7 Mn in a round led by IvyCap Ventures to accelerate product development and scale enterprise deployments globally.
• Founded in 2024, Spector.ai develops AI agents that integrate live data from multiple sources to enable predictive maintenance, diagnostics, and actionable insights for industrial equipment.
• The investment adds to the deepening investor interest in agentic AI startups, with India-native AI startups raising over $1.8 Bn over the past decade. Of this, nearly 80% or $1.6 Bn trickled into application-layer-focussed ventures.

🧾 Eternal’s Tax Woes Continue

• The foodtech giant has received two fresh GST demand orders, totalling INR 27.6 Cr from West Bengal tax authorities regarding short payment of output tax between April 2020 and March 2022 (INR 9.85 Cr for FY21 and INR 17.7 Cr for FY22).
• Eternal intends to challenge both orders. This marks the third tax demand from state officials this week. 
• This comes as Eternal’s consolidated net profit fell 63% YoY to INR 65 Cr in Q2 FY26, even as operating revenue surged 183% YoY to INR 13,590 Cr. This was driven largely by Blinkit’s transition to an inventory-led model and rapid dark store expansion.

📊 Nuuk’s FY25 Revenue Zooms 50X 

• The D2C home appliances startup saw its operating revenue zoom multifold to INR 16 Cr in FY25 from INR 31.8 Lakh in FY24, driven by sales via its website, online marketplaces and a recently launched retail store in Delhi NCR.
• However, net losses jumped 6X YoY to INR 39 Lakh in FY25. This came as total expenses ballooned to INR 16.4 Cr from INR 38.8 Lakh in FY24, driven by heavy cash burn in its first full year of operations.
• Founded in 2023, Nuuk manufactures home and kitchen appliances like heaters, fans, air fryers and juicers. The startup designs products entirely in-house and has raised $10 Mn to date.

Inc42 Markets

Inc42 Startup Spotlight

Can Mirana Put India On The Global Toy Manufacturing Map?

Kids today don’t just want toys, they want experiences. Smartphones, AR, drones, and gaming consoles have rewired expectations, shrinking attention spans and forcing toy makers to innovate or fade. Mirana Toys is building exactly that.

An Accidental Toy Maker: Founded in 2021, Mirana Toys started as Zemote Home Automation, an IoT smart home venture. During the pandemic, with vendors idle and import duties on Chinese toys rising, the startup built a hover football as a passion project. It sold over 4-5 lakh units on ecommerce platforms. That response triggered deeper research. 

Tech Meets Manufacturing: Mirana is a B2B-first design house and OEM manufacturer for toys, producing 5,000-10,000 units per SKU across six to nine months. Its products connect to a proprietary app with AR games and challenges. The app has crossed 1 Lakh downloads so far.

Mirana’s Edge: The startup recently moved to a medium-sized facility in Ahmedabad, with a much larger 3 Lakh sq ft plant on the anvil. The startup is also expanding into new categories, including AI-powered storytelling robots and talking companions.

Backed by InfoEdge, Mirana has raised INR 113.5 Cr to date and sells its products across 4,000+ retail stores and major ecommerce platforms. Looking ahead, it aims to establish a stable export business within the next year. But can Mirana challenge China’s toy manufacturing hegemony?

Infographic Of The Day

The year 2025 marked a turning point for India’s E2W market. Scale, distribution and execution began to matter more than early-mover advantage.⁣ Here’s what the reshuffle looks like.