Unacademy Eyes M&A Opportunities Amid Reset

Unacademy co-founder Gaurav Munjal has confirmed that the edtech firm is engaged in merger and acquisition discussions. In a post on X, marking the platform’s 10-year milestone since its formal launch, Munjal said, “Yes, we are in M&A conversations, and yes, if we find a win-win situation where consolidation can lead to a stronger entity, we will go ahead with it.”

His comments follow media reports that upGrad is exploring an acquisition of Unacademy at a sharply reduced valuation of $300–320 million—nearly 90% lower than the company’s peak valuation of $3.5 billion during the 2021 edtech boom.

In his detailed note, Munjal traced Unacademy’s evolution from a 2010 YouTube channel he created in college to its official launch in 2015. The platform grew rapidly on the back of free courses, strong educator communities, and a technology-driven learning model. Between 2019 and 2021, Unacademy scaled aggressively after introducing subscriptions, at one point touching one million paid users and raising over $700 million in funding.

However, the post-pandemic shift toward offline learning, intense price competition, and high cash burn significantly impacted the company. Munjal admitted that chasing valuations earlier resulted in strategic missteps, and acknowledged that Unacademy’s current valuation may be below $500 million.

Over the past three years, the company has sharply reduced costs, cutting annual burn from ₹1,400 crore in 2022 to under ₹175 crore in 2025, while refocusing on content and subscription-led growth. Unacademy reported ₹826 crore in revenue for FY25, with net losses reducing by 31% year-on-year to ₹436 crore.

Munjal emphasised that while consolidation is on the table, Unacademy’s priority now is sustainable product building with strong unit economics not valuation chasing.