Unacademy Valued At $3.4 Bn With $440 Mn Funding From Temasek, SoftBank

Bengaluru-headquartered edtech startup Unacademy has raised $440 Mn in its Series H round led by Singapore-based Temasek at a valuation of $3.44 Bn. The round saw participation from Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Vision Fund, General Atlantic, Tiger Global, Ritesh Agarwal’s Aroa Ventures and Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal. Some existing angel investors have exited the startup in this round. 

Gaurav Munjal, cofounder and CEO of Unacademy Group, said that the startup will utilise the fresh capital infusion to build and scale its three core products — Unacademy, Relevel, and Graphy.  He said Unacademy will help students “crack life-changing exams, while Relevel will help people to get their dream job. Graphy will empower creators to build their online businesses and to sell digital goods including non fungible tokens (NFTs)”.

The investment comes after the edtech startup closed a secondary transaction round in January this year that saw Tiger Global, Steadview Capital, General Atlantic, Dragoneer buy shares worth $50 Mn from other investors. Including the current round, the edtech unicorn has raised more than $838 Mn to date. It has also raised funds from former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.

The investment also comes on the back of Unacademy acquiring online game streaming platform Rheo TV for an undisclosed amount. This was the tenth acquisition for Unacademy in the past two years, and joined startups such as Wifistudy, Kreatryx, Prepladder, Mastree, TapChief, which were acquired by the edtech company. 

Founded in 2015 by Munjal, Hemesh Singh, and Roman Saini, Unacademy at present has over 50,000 registered educators and more than 62 Mn learners. The startup offers learnings in 14 languages across 5,000 cities. The startup in FY20 recorded INR 86 Cr revenue with a significant expenses of INR 386.7 Cr resulting in a total loss INR 300 Cr. However, the startup said that its valuation has increased by 10X in the past 18 months. 

At its current valuation, Unacademy is only behind Byju Raveendran led BYJU’S in the Indian edtech space. BYJU’S recently acquired higher education platform Great Learning for $600 Mn and Mumbai-based test prep startup Toppr for $150 Mn to expand its portfolio of products. 

According to Inc42 Plus analysis Indian startups have raised a total of $10.8 Bn in the first half of 2021 and edtech was the second largest sector with investment worth $1.8 Bn. Given the uncertainty around schools, colleges and other educational institutions reopening, edtech startups are expected to witness growth in user base and venture capital funding. 

Last week, Unacademy announced stock options for teachers on its platform. Similar to employee stock option plans (ESOP), the TSOPs currently cover over 300 educators. The company’s partner educators would be eligible for teachers stock options (TSOPs) after completion of three, four, and five years with the startup. 

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