The Success Story of Unacademy
As the classic and conventional classroom teaching methods increasingly fade into obscurity and become outdated, the education sector has already started to shape a revolution. The Education Technology (EdTech) era has evolved over the past ten years. As online tutorials and assessments have replaced textbooks and chalkboards, its erratic wave has affected the demographics of students across all age groups in the Indian nation.
Introduction
India is in danger of overlooking or missing out on the capital of untapped human potential due to the enormous learning gap caused by social, economic, geographic, and various other factors. This is where new EdTech companies like BYJU’s, Unacademy, and Toppr have seized the opportunity to rise and assume leadership. The critical virus COVID-19, which has caused students from schools and universities worldwide to turn to online education to restart their studies, has undoubtedly increased the popularity of online education.
About Unacademy
Unacademy, a platform for online learning that Sorting Hat Technologies owns and runs, allows users to access online videos of the curriculum that expert educators have created. In addition to 10+2 students, college applicants preparing for competitive examinations like the CAT, GATE, UPSC, etc., can also download the Unacademy app.
The platform, established in 2015, was first introduced by Gaurav Manjal as a YouTube channel in 2010.
Unacademy, the largest learning platform in India with its main offices in Bengaluru, brings together skilled educators for millions of students who need higher-quality education.
With a growing network of more than 1000 top registered educators and 50+ million active learners until November 2021, Unacademy is paving the way to revolutionise how the country approaches education. Unacademy, Unacademy Subscription, Wifistudy, Chamomile Tea with Toppers, and Let’s Crack it Brands are part of the platform’s group.
Business Model of Unacademy
Initially, Unacademy was a Youtube channel that provided all visitors with free education. After a while, Unacademy, an official learning platform that provided free classes, was created due to its creators’ consideration of the possibility of eventually monetizing their aided services.
However, this time they made a few minor tweaks to their strategy. They started offering premium consumers only access to live classes. Additionally, they developed an ad-free version of Unacademy that is solely available to subscribers. One element that gives the platform a competitive edge is the availability of coaching for some of the most important and prestigious national exams, such as the UPSC and CAT.
Numerous opportunities arose for Unacademy due to the platform’s team channelling in an appropriate environment and users being willing to pay the fees, inspiring the founders to develop the platform further. The site aimed to give tutoring services more attention because they were becoming quite popular in Indian society. Over time, many people have signed up for Unacademy’s content package, which comprises a range of diverse courses like spoken English, computer programming (coding), and many other practically useful programmes.
Founders of Unacademy
Gaurav Munjal established Unacademy, and then Hemesh Singh and Roman Saini joined.
When he was an engineering student in Mumbai, Gaurav Munjal started the Unacademy YouTube channel. Later, he was hired to work as a software engineer for Directi. After that, he started his own business, Flat to, which Common Floor ultimately purchased.
Hemesh Singh received his engineering degree from the Motilal Nehru Institute of Technology. FlatChat employed him as the Chief Technical Officer before becoming CTO of Unacademy.
Recent funding of Unacademy
According to information from Crunchbase, Unacademy has raised $838.5M in investment over 12 rounds. Their most recent fundraising came on August 1, 2021, when Temasek Holdings, a state-owned company in Singapore, led a $440 million Series H round with a $3.44 billion valuation.
Acquisition by Unacademy
So far, the business has purchased 11 businesses, with Swiflearn being the most recent on November 2, 2021.
One company is Kreatryx, an online testing centre for the Engineering Services Exam (ESE) and the GATE was purchased at the end of March 2020 in a cash and equity transaction. Additionally, WiFi Study was repurchased by the platform in 2018.
Unacademy announced in June 2020 that it had acquired CodeChef, an 11-year-old online platform for algorithms and coding. The acquisition will help the business develop a sector for teaching coding to schoolchildren.
In July 2020, it also purchased the Chandigarh-based ed-tech startup PrepLadder.
At the end of 2020, it purchased the exam preparation startup NeoStencil for an unknown sum.
Then, in February 2021, it bought TapChief, Handa Ka Funda, Rheo TV, and Swiflearn, its most recent acquisition in November 2021.
Unacademy Progress
Unacademy, an Edtech company, currently has a reliable YouTube channel and its own mobile application. The company is laying the groundwork for becoming one of the largest edtech platforms in the Indian education market. On both the app and the YouTube channel, they have a subscriber base that is continually growing.
Unacademy provides study for over 60+ exam categories, including topics for various competitive exams. As of December 2021, the platform had hundreds of online educators and had received over 315 million views of their YouTube videos.
Final Thoughts
Unacademy has done successfully for itself despite being backed by significant global firms like Facebook, General Atlantic, and Sequoia Capital. With a workforce motivated to get the most out of its resources, the platform currently has the best chance to grow its business to new heights.
