Unacademy raises a new round of funding led by General Atlantic, Facebook, and Sequoia India
The $110M Series E round also saw participation from existing investors Nexus Venture Partners, Steadview Capital, Blume Ventures, Kalyan Krishnamurthy and Sujeet Kumar
February 21, 2020
Unacademy, one of India’s largest learning platforms, today announced that it has raised a round of funding of $110M from new investors Facebook and General Atlantic, along with Sequoia India, Nexus Venture Partners, Steadview Capital, and Blume Ventures. Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart and Sujeet Kumar, co-founder, Udaan also participated in this round. In addition to raising the funding, Unacademy also provided exits to some of its angel investors.
Unacademy plans to utilize the funds to further penetrate into the test preparation categories, launching more exam categories, acquiring top educators, and creating enhanced learning experiences for the learners through great content and product.
Gaurav Munjal, Co-Founder and CEO, Unacademy, said, “Our goal from day one has been to democratize education and make quality education accessible to everyone. We do that by bringing high-quality educators and content on our platform and ensuring it is accessible to everyone across the country. We are seeing great learning outcomes through our subscription where learners can take Live classes by these educators. We thank General Atlantic and Facebook who have joined us in this journey and our existing investors who continue to be a part of the journey by supporting us. Our goal is to democratize education and become a leading educational organization and consumer internet story out of India.”
Unacademy started in 2015 as a platform for educators and learners with educators creating educational videos and offering live interactive classes with access to more than 30 exam categories for the learners. Unacademy now has more than 1 million videos on its platform. Currently, the platform has over 10,000 educators who have created educational videos on Unacademy. In 2019, Unacademy launched its subscription for various examinations which gives access to the learners throughout the country to top educators and structured learning. Within a span of one year, Unacademy has more than 90,000 active subscribers. More than 700 educators take classes on Unacademy every day. Unacademy has seen great outcomes across various examinations like NTA, UGC and CSIR recently. With the new round of funding, Unacademy plans to launch more test prep categories, onboard more great educators, and work on making its content the best in the industry and aims to be a household name.
Shantanu Rastogi, Managing Director, General Atlantic, said, “Unacademy’s mission of enabling educators across disciplines to reach the widespread aspiring student community across the country is inspiring. Its live classes platform disrupts and democratizes the learning process in an unmatched manner, with the more than 18 million students who engage with the company’s content underscoring its quality. Multilingual classes, practice tests, peer discussions and comprehensive coverage of over 30 exam categories is also leading to accelerated adoption of the company’s subscription plan, Unacademy Plus. We are excited to back Gaurav and his team as they seek to provide access and affordability to millions of students.”
Ajit Mohan, Vice President and Managing Director, Facebook India, said, “Facebook is an ally for India’s economic growth and social development, and we are excited about India and it’s rapidly rising Internet ecosystem. With this investment in Unacademy, we are reinforcing our commitment to the Indian startup ecosystem as well as investing in a company that is transforming learning in India. We love that the company is fundamentally democratizing education and driving innovation in new learning models.”
About Unacademy
Unacademy is an education technology platform founded by Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini and Hemesh Singh in 2015. It was started as a YouTube channel by Gaurav Munjal in 2010. Headquartered in Bengaluru, Unacademy is one of India’s largest learning platforms that brings expert educators together with millions of students in need of quality education. With a growing network of more than 10,000 registered educators, Unacademy is changing the way India learns. The Unacademy Group consists of Unacademy, Unacademy Subscription, Wifistudy, Chamomile Tea with Toppers, Let’s Crack It Brands. The company is backed by prominent investors such as Sequoia India, SAIF Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Steadview Capital, and Blume Ventures.
To know more download Unacademy Learning App from Play Store, App Store or visit us at https://unacademy.com/
Media Contacts
Mary Armstrong & Emily Japlon
General Atlantic
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