Unacademy raises $150 Mn round led by SoftBank at $1.45 Bn valuation

Unacademy has raised $150 million in a fresh round led by Softbank at a staggering valuation of $1.45 billion. Existing backers Facebook, Sequoia Capital, Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Ventures also participated in the round. 

This is three-fold jump in the Bengaluru-based company’s valuation as compared $510 million in Series E round which closed in February, this year. After Byju’s, the Guarav Munjal-led firm has become the second edtech startup to surpass $1 billion in valuation and enter the coveted club of unicorns.

Munjal announced the development on Twitter.

The capital infusion has come at a time when India has seen a surge in consumptions of online learning solutions due to lockdown and restrictions in the opening of the educational institution. Even in the unlock phases student are dependent on online learning classes.

2020 has been a phenomenal year for Unacademy. In the past four-five months, it took over three notable startups, PrepLadder, Mastree and CodeChef and launched a new product Graphy with a separate founding team. 

In terms of fundraising, it’s only behind edtech decacorn Bjyu’s. While Byju’s has raised around $545 million across four tranches in 2020, Unacademy has scored over $260 million in two rounds. On the other hand, Vedantu and Topps also closed their $100 million and $50 million rounds respectively.

On Monday, Eruditus, a platform that offers executive courses, raised $113 million in a Series D round led by Naspers and Leeds Illuminate Global Fund. Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), Sequoia Capital and Ved Capital Evergreen Private Equity also participated in the round.

With 30 million registered users and 350,000 paid subscribers, Unacademy has over 18,000 registered educators on the platform. In comparison, Byju’s has over 50 million users on the platform of which 3.5 million are paid.