Unacademy Elevates Graphy CEO Sumit Jain To Partner Role

Edtech major Unacademy on Tuesday (August 15) announced the elevation of Graphy chief executive officer (CEO) Sumit Jain to the role of a partner. 

“… @sumjain, who has been with us for more than 3.5 years is now our new Partner. Partner at Unacademy is like a cofounder who joined at a later stage. Sumit has been like a cofounder to us since day one and has scaled Graphy to what it is today. Congratulations Sumit,” said Unacademy cofounder and CEO Gaurav Munjal on X (formerly Twitter). 

Jain, who leads the Unacademy-owned Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, has been instrumental in building Graphy as a profitable venture within the larger Unacademy umbrella. 

“Gaurav, thanks a lot for the trust you have shown in me. The journey with Unacademy Group has been a roller coaster ride, full of challenges and learning. And I would not demand anything less. Very very excited to be a part of the Unacademy Group. Let’s crack it!” Jain said, responding to Munjal. 

An alumnus of IIT Roorkee, Jain is a serial entrepreneur who, besides Graphy, has cofounded big-ticket ventures such as proptech platform CommonFloor (later acquired by Quikr) and social media app OpenTalk. He has also worked with SaaS giant Oracle at the outset of his career. 

Jain is also an angel investor and counts startups such as Airmeet, Newton School, and AdmitKard, among others in his portfolio. 

The elevation will likely enable Unacademy to leverage Jain’s experience to further chart its course towards profitability and bolster growth ambitions. Even as Unacademy continues to rake up heavy annual losses, Graphy is probably the only profitable subsidiary of the edtech major. 

Curiously, the elevation comes a day after the edtech startup appointed Aakash Educational Institute’s Anurag Tiwari as the National Academic Director for offline business.

The new elevation comes at a time when Unacademy has streamlined its operations, cut costs and shelved cash-guzzling ventures. The result has been that the edtech major reported its first-ever cash flow positive month in June this year. 

In an internal communication earlier this year, Munjal even told employees that Unacademy had significantly slashed its burn rate and was well set to ‘almost generate’ a profit at the group level in April. 

Meanwhile, the new focus on profitability came at a cost. As capital became scarce starting last year, the edtech company undertook multiple restructuring exercises and has so far fired more than 2,000 employees across the board. However, the stark reversal of fortunes is in contrast with BYJU’S, which continues to be mired in challenges.

With Jain in the partner role, Unacademy appears to be eyeing a bigger pie of the homegrown edtech space, which is projected to reach a market size of $29 Bn by 2030.