Yes, we are in M&A talks: Unacademy's Gaurav Munjal

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 this, Unacademy co-founder Gaurav Munjal said in a post on social media platform X on Wednesday, as the edtech firm marked 10 years since its formal launch.

Munjal’s remarks come amid media reports that higher education and skilling platform upGrad is in talks to acquire Unacademy at a valuation of $300 to 320 million, nearly 90% lower than the startup’s peak valuation of about $3.5 billion during the 2021 funding boom.

In a detailed post, Munjal reflected on Unacademy’s journey, which began as a YouTube channel in 2010 that he started while in college to help friends with computer science concepts. The platform was formally launched in December 2015 and quickly scaled by focusing on free content, strong educator communities and a tech first approach to learning.

The company saw rapid growth between 2019 and 2021 after launching its subscription product, reaching close to one million paid subscribers and raising over $700 million across multiple funding rounds. However, Munjal said the post Covid shift of learners back to offline coaching, aggressive cash burn and the rise of lower priced competitors hurt the business.

He acknowledged that Unacademy might now be valued at less than $500 million, compared to around $3.5 billion three years ago, and noted that chasing valuation earlier led to several strategic missteps.

Over the past three years, Unacademy has cut costs sharply, reduced its annual burn from about Rs 1,400 crore in 2022 to under Rs 175 crore in 2025, lowered pricing and refocused on content and subscriptions. For FY25, the SoftBank-baked firm reported Rs 826 crore revenue and reduced its net losses by 31% year-on-year to Rs 436 crore.

While consolidation remains an option, Munjal said the company is now focused on building sustainable education products with strong unit economics rather than pursuing headline valuations.