Unacademy Cofounders Gaurav Munjal & Roman Saini To Exit: Report

Unacademy cofounder Gaurav Munjal is reportedly stepping down from the chief executive’s role, with board member Sumit Jain to take over. Fellow cofounder Roman Saini is also exiting day-to-day operations.

An ET report, citing people close to the matter, said that the move comes amid the edtech startup’s organisational restructuring, a failed acquisition deal and and a growing focus on its language learning platform AirLearn.

The report further said that Unacademy’s shareholders were concerned about its future as the company has been gradually moving away from its online test prep roots towards a more capital-intensive offline coaching model.

Besides, Munjal’s decision to step down from the CEO role also coincides with his growing focus on AirLearn. The report further said that this shift in focus had stirred an internal debate among the directors and they were not in favour of raising more capital for the language learning app while the startup’s core business remained under pressure. 

The board was in talks with Munjal for a potential exit for a while. Besides, the outgoing cofounders will continue to hold their stake in the startup.

“Now it has come to the point where they are all aligned and discussing the final terms of the founders leaving. The two of them will be handed a cash payout, but will likely continue to hold their shares in the firm,” one of the sources told ET. 

Inc42 has reached out to Unacademy for comments on the development. The story will be updated based on its response. 

Munjal, Saini and Singh founded Unacademy in 2015 which offers online learning services to students and professionals preparing for competitive examinations. 

The development comes almost a year after Hemesh Singh, cofounder and former chief technology officer at Unacademy, announced his transition to an advisory role after being with the startup for eight years. Singh was likely to stay in the advisory role for 6-12 months, with Jain replacing him on the board. 

It is speculated that Munjal and the shareholders were also at loggerheads over a potential acquisition of the edtech platform. In December last year, the Bengaluru-based startup was in advanced talks with Kota-based Allen Career Institute for an acquisition valuing the Munjal-led startup at $800 Mn, a steep cut from its peak valuation of $3.4 Bn. But a couple of days after that, Munjal clarified the acquisition as just a rumour on social media.

After 2022, it has been a difficult run for Unacademy. But it managed to cut its losses in the financial year ending March 2024 (FY24). According to its standalone statements, the startup was able to cut its loss by 82.09% to INR 285 Cr in FY24 from INR 285 Cr in the year ago period. 

However, Unacademy’s operating revenue declined 2.25% to INR 716 Cr in the fiscal year under review from INR 733 Cr in FY23. The startups’ employee cost dropped 69.47% to INR 340 Cr in FY24 from INR 1,114 Cr during the previous fiscal year. Last year, the Peak XV-backed startup had laid off 250 employees and since 2022, 2,000 employees at Unacademy have lost their jobs.