Unacademy is a study platform that helps students prepare for competitive exams to get into a college and also those who are pursuing graduation level courses. Students can watch live lectures from educators and later engage in sessions to review topics as per convenience. The company launched a subscription service that offers students access to all live classes.
Unacademy was launched as a YouTube channel in 2010 by Munjal, Roman Saini, Hemesh Singh and Sachin Gupta. It lets tutors and educators create video courses that are further published on the Unacademy platform. Unacademy has acquired several startups in India to grow the learning business.
Unacademy was then founded by Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini, Hemesh Singh, and Sachin Gupta in 2015. Unacademy empowers educators by helping them create high quality educational lessons on its Educator App that learners can access. With a network of over 10,000 educators and over 13 million learners, 30 plus exam categories, Unacademy’s constant goal is to help learners achieve their dreams.
Unacademy, which is valued at $510 million, is among the fastest growing companies in India’s ed-tech sector. The startup claims it has grown its paid subscriber base to 200,000 users from 100,000 users in the last three months. It added that it has over 5 million monthly users for its live free classes and has conducted over 1.2 lakh live classes in June alone.
Unacademy is one of India’s fastest growing education startups, received the backing of a major technology giant i.e. Facebook. The company is open to engage with startups that are building solutions for the Indian market for more investing opportunities.
Unacademy Acquisitions/Expansions
India’s startups have been growing and are beginning to acquire market, it has started to attract several corporate giants like Google, Amazon and Twitter also have made investments in Indian startups.
Unacademy has acquired several Startups for its benefit and provide quality learning service in India to the learners.
StartupTalky
Kreatryx
Unacademy acquired the online exam preparation platform 'Kreatryx' in a cash and stock deal in 2020. Even after the acquisition, Kreatryx will continue to operate as an individual brand and will be controlled by the founder Ankit Goyal under the Unacademy Brands Team headed by Dinesh Godara.
Kreatryx, which was founded in 2014, is an online preparation platform focused on GATE and ESE. Currently, the platform provides online classes for GATE, SSC, ESE, CIL, and VIZAG STEEL.
CodeChef
CodeChef is an eleven-year-old platform that helps programmers get a foothold in computer programming through active participation via contests. The Mumbai based company which claims to have grown to over 10 lakh programmers globally.
Unacademy has announced the acquisition of CodeChef, an online platform for algorithm and coding in 2020. The acquisition is likely to help the Facebook-backed firm to launch coding skills vertical for school kids.
While the size of the deal is undisclosed, it’s not clear how CodeChef will be positioned as it was not for a profit venture under its previous owner.
“Codechef is one of the best platforms for programmers and their vision is aligned to what we do here at Unacademy Group,” said Gaurav Munjal, co-founder, and CEO of Unacademy while announcing the development on Twitter.
WiFiStudy
Unacademy acquired Jaipur based online exam preparation platform called Wifistudy. Though it is a complete acquisition, the company will continue to operate independently.
With over 4.5 million subscribers and 70 million monthly video views, Wifistudy is one of the largest educational YouTube channels in the world,” said Gaurav Munjal, chief executive of Unacademy. The acquisition will help Unacademy dive deeper into the test prep market. The company allows educators to create content, had plans to utilize these funds to expand into competitive exams such as the JEE.
This makes Wifistufy a perfect and suitable fit for Unacademy. Founded in 2013, Wifistudy helps aspirants through exam preparation tips, strategy, syllabus, and pattern. As part of the acquisition, Wifistudy will launch a profile on the Unacademy platform, which will help its learners to access these videos.
StartupTalky
PrepLadder(acquired in 2020)
Indian online learning platform Unacademy said on Tuesday it has acquired Chandigarh-based startup PrepLadder for $50 million in a cash and stock deal as the Facebook-backed edtech giant scouts for deals to expand its presence in the country. PrepLadder specializes in medical examinations and provides access to education services and preparation material for medical entrance exams.
PrepLadder employs about 150 people, it offers courses aimed at medical students. The apparent new two-year-old startup, which never raised any capital from external investors, has around more than 80,000 subscribers.
The acquisition of PrepLadder comes as both Unacademy and Byju’s, the two edtech leaders in India have engaged in M&A talks with several local startups in recent months to further their dominance in the nation. In a call with reporters today, Gaurav Munjal, co-founder and chief executive of Unacademy, said he was open to talking with more startups to explore opportunities for them to work together.
StartupTalky
Mastree
Unacademy has invested $5 million in the learning platform, Mastree for a majority stake. Mastree is building an impactful subscription product, and it will change the way students learn.
This acquisition would strengthen its presence in the K12 learning space. The ten months old Mastree is a one-stop subscription product for STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) courses for classes 5 to 8.
Along with providing live sessions for the subjects as mentioned above, the platform also provides features such as doubt solving, live quizzes, and personalized practice sessions.
The Bengaluru led firm has also provided an exit to Blume Ventures in Mastree. According to regulatory filings, Mastree has allotted 93,125 Series A CCPS at Rs 4702.65 per share for a total consideration of Rs 43.8 crore~$5.7 million to Unacademy.
According to an estimate, Unacademy has valued Mastree in the range of Rs 100-105 crore. Blume Ventures had initially invested Rs 3.78 crore in the edtech platform at a valuation of Rs 21 crore.
Wrap Up
Unacademy has grown more with its marketing. It has also offered low-cost subscription plans to attract learners to its subscription platform. Unacademy has a presence in Indonesia too, it has about 30 educators. The company did not offer an update on how its international ambitions are holding up. Unacademy is now valued at around $200 million, a huge jump in valuation.
Author: Vibhavari Madki
Source : https://startuptalky.com/unacademy-startup-aquisitions/
Date : 2020-08-28T05:36:35.000Z