Unacademy – Company Profile

Unacademy is a leading online edtech company that offers both free as well as subscription based live classes. Based out of Bengaluru, Unacademy prepares students for a wide range of competitive exams such as UPSC, State PSC, bank exams, railway exams, defense exams, NEET, IIT JEE, GATE, TET, CA & CS, and CAT. The company also covers exams at the school level.

Unacademy focuses on going beyond the usual textbooks and classroom education, so that students can gain useful knowledge, improve their speaking ability and increase their chances of qualifying in tough competitive exams. This is made possible by specially designed learning syllabus, technology integrations and thousands of talented educators who are available to help students on Unacademy platform.

History:

The beginnings of Unacademy can be traced back to 2010, when founder Gaurav Munjal started a small learning initiative in the form of a YouTube channel. The idea was to help students gain more knowledge and insights, as may be required for them to succeed in their chosen career path. The idea flourished over the years and it was officially launched as Unacademy in 2015.

Gaurav was joined by two other co-founders Roman Saini and Hemesh Singh, who have been playing a pivotal role in the success of the company. Unacademy has grown by leaps and bounds in recent times and is one of the fastest startups in edtech space to achieve the coveted ‘Unicorn’ tag. Unacademy is currently valued at USD 1.45 billion.

Funding:

Unacademy has received investments worth USD 348.5 million from eight rounds of funding. Some top investors include Facebook, Blume Ventures, Nexus Ventures, Softbank, Sequoia Capital and General Atlantic.

Acquisitions:

As part of its strategy to improve its learning platforms and expand operations, Unacademy has made several acquisitions. Some recent acquisitions by Unacademy include Coursavy, Mastree, PrepLadder, CodeChef, Kreatryx, and WiFiStudy.

Competitors:

Unacademy competes with other edtech companies such as Byju’s, Vedantu, Toppr, Embibe, Learnpedia, Khan Academy, Plancess EduSolutions, Testbook, Extramarks Education, and Toprankers.

About the Founders:

Co-founder Gaurav Munjal currently serves as the CEO at Unacademy. Prior to Unacademy, he had founded Flatchat, which was a real estate platform to help college students and bachelors to find flats on rent. The company was later acquired by CommonFloor. Gaurav has also worked with other companies such as Directi and Metacube.

Co-founder Roman Saini serves as the Chief Educator at Unacademy. He is a doctor from AIIMS and was also chosen for Indian Administrative Service (IAS) – Government of India. Co-founder Hemesh Singh serves as the CTO at Unacademy. He is an engineering graduate and had earlier worked as CTO of Flatchat.