Indian edtech major Unacademy has raised $150 million in a fresh funding round led by Japanese multinational conglomerate Softbank Group.
The company’s existing investors, including General Atlantic, Sequoia India, Nexus Venture Partners, Facebook, and Blume Ventures, also participated in the round.
The funding has made the Bengaluru-based company become a unicorn at $1.45 billion valuation, making it the country’s second edtech startup to surpass $1 billion in valuation after Byju’s. Unacademy’s valuation has tripled from $510 million when it closed its Series E round in February this year.
Announcing the news, Gaurav Munjal, Co-founder and CEO, Unacademy, took to Twitter and wrote,
Unacademy Group has raised $150M in a round led by Softbank valuing us at $1.45B post the funding. Great to have them onboard as a partner in our journey.
Our existing investors General Atlantic, Sequoia India, Nexus, Facebook and Blume also participated in the round.
— Gaurav Munjal (@gauravmunjal) September 2, 2020
Munjal further wrote, “Our goal always has been to democratize knowledge and make it more affordable and accessible by getting the best experts of the world help everyone achieve their goals.”
Unacademy aims to partner with the brightest minds and have courses on every possible topic in multiple languages so the whole world can benefit from these courses. The company has distinguished itself in test preparation classes by recruiting star teachers who help attract ambitious students taking everything from civil services, banking, medical and engineering to programming languages.
Started in 2015, the Bengaluru-based startup now has over 30 million registered users, 350,000 paying subscribers, and over 18,000 registered educators on its platform, with more than 700,000 users accessing its app and website on a daily basis.
Speaking about the company, Gaurav Munjal said in a statement,
“Learning from the best experts to achieve a life goal has mostly been a privilege, available only to those living in the top few cities of the country. At Unacademy, we are breaking that barrier and helping people achieve their life’s most important goals, by giving them access to the best coaching from experts in the field.”
Unacademy has accelerated its growth in recent months as schools across the country have been shut over coronavirus pandemic. It has recorded a 100% increase in its paid subscriber base in the last three months. The startup also said that the average daily watch time across its platforms has also risen significantly, with monthly watch time minutes reaching an all-time high of over 1 billion.
Commenting on the investment, Munish Varma, Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisors, said,
“By bringing quality education to a vast network of students for the first time, Unacademy is bridging the privilege gap in India.”
2020 has been a roller coaster ride for Unacademy. Besides massive fundraise, the startup has acquired three notable edtech startups and picked a majority stake in one in the past four months alone.
In April, it acquired Kreatryx, a Delhi-based online exam preparation platform, in a cash and stock deal. Unacademy then acquired online coding platform CodeChef in June, and then PrepLadder, a Chandigarh-based medical preparation platform, for $50 million in July. The same month, it led a strategic investment of $5 million to acquire a majority stake in Mastree, a leading K12 learning platform based in Bengaluru.
In terms of fundraising, Unacademy has raised a total of $260 million in two rounds in 2020. It last raised $110 million in Series E round led by General Atlantic, Facebook, and Sequoia Capital.
