UpGrad completes Unacademy acquisition; Ultrahuman’s $60 million raise

UpGrad has completed its acquisition of Unacademy, marking the close of a major consolidation in India’s edtech sector. This and more in today’s ETtech Top 5.

Also in the letter:
■ Record UPI volumes in August
■ Explained: Meta’s $17.1 billion settlement
■ AI changes holiday planning

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Ronnie Screwvala (left) and Unacademy CEO Gaurav Munjal

Ronnie Screwvala-led UpGrad has completed its acquisition of the edtech company Unacademy for “just over $200 million”, CEO Gaurav Munjal said on Tuesday.

On July 28, ET had reported that that the final value had been fixed at Rs 1,955 crore and that Unacademy investors would receive one seat on UpGrad’s board.

The numbers:

• Unacademy’s final value was at a discount of over 90% below its peak valuation.
• The acquisition is a 100% share-swap transaction. Per this, Unacademy’s investors will receive UpGrad shares.
• Munjal noted that Unacademy has a topline of Rs 400 crore and Rs 900 crore in the bank.
• He added that most of its businesses were either profitable, or close to profitability.

Yes, and: Munjal noted that Unacademy became a unicorn six years before the deal closed. “We raised at a peak, but sold at a fraction of that. I’m not going to dress these facts up.”

“I think there are some incredible strengths that Unacademy brings to upGrad: the savviness, the product & tech first thinking, the ability to look at a completely different target audience, the brand, and the resilience of the team that created this,” Screwvala said in a post on X.



InsuranceDekho CEO Ankit Agrawal

InsuranceDekho and RenewBuy have completed their consolidation after more than a year of work on a share-swap merger. The merged business will operate under the InsuranceDekho brand and be led by founder and CEO Ankit Agrawal.

Combined scale: The merged entity has:

• An annual premium book exceeding Rs 6,600 crore.
• More than six lakh insurance distribution partners.
• Reach across 98.57% of India’s pin codes.
• Facilitated more than two crore policies since inception (as of March 2026).

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Ultrahuman cofounder Mohit Kumar

Smart-ring maker Ultrahuman has raised about $60 million (Rs 583 crore) in a funding round led by Qualcomm Ventures, as per filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

ET was the first to report on July 15 that Ultrahuman was in talks to raise $60 million at a post-money valuation of $360-400 million.

Deal details:

• The funding includes about Rs 282 crore raised earlier this year and a fresh issuance of up to Rs 301 crore approved by Ultrahuman in August.
• The latest shares are being issued at Rs 7.85 lakh apiece, valuing the Bengaluru-based company at around Rs 3,450 crore, or about $360 million, post-money.
• Qualcomm Ventures is investing about Rs 143 crore in the latest tranche.
• Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, or Labcorp, is putting in around Rs 95 crore; existing investor Blume Ventures will invest about Rs 45 crore, the filings showed.

Muthu Subramanian, MD, Yuma Energy

Battery-swapping company Yuma Energy has raised $35 million from automotive supplier Magna International.

The details:

• The entire investment is in the form of primary capital.
• A majority of the funds will be used to expand Yuma’s battery fleet; the rest will go towards charging units and physical swapping infrastructure.
• The startup will also enter new markets.
• It is targeting Ebitda breakeven in FY27.

Tell me more: The company is looking to diversify its customer base to e-rickshaw operators and similar fleets. It is currently highly dependent on Yulu, which drives 15-20% of its business.



Navneet Singh (left) and Kiran V Sharma, founders, Kepler Aerospace

Bengaluru-based space startup Kepler Aerospace raised $8 million in a seed round led by Blue Ashva Capital.

Fund use: The startup plans to deploy its first six swarming intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) satellites in the next 12-24 months. It will use the fresh capital to develop its space-based ISR capabilities and scale its mission-operations-as-a -service and avionics-as-a-service businesses.

Founded in 2018 by Navneet Singh and Kiran V Sharma, the startup is building an integrated space infrastructure stack covering satellite systems, avionics, ground infrastructure, mission operations, and intelligence delivery.

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India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) processed a record 24.51 billion transactions in August, driven by smaller-ticket payments.

Data decoded: According to data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI):

• Transactions worth Rs 29.82 lakh crore were processed in the month of August.
• Transaction volumes rose 3.6% from 23.66 billion in July; the value of transactions dipped marginally month-on-month.
• On a year-on-year basis, transaction volumes rose 22%, while transaction value increased 20%.

Low value play: The average daily transaction value slipped marginally to Rs 96,205 crore from Rs 96,383 crore in July, even as the average daily transaction count edged up to 791 million.

Also Read: India preparing rollout of agentic payments on UPI

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg

Meta’s proposed $17.1 billion settlement with 47 US states targets not only harmful content and children’s privacy, but also questions whether Facebook and Instagram were deliberately designed to be addictive to minor users.

This is only one of many scrutinies the Mark Zuckerberg-led tech giant faces. So what does this settlement mean?

Proposed US protections: Under the proposed settlement, US users under 18 would receive several default protections on Facebook and Instagram, namely:

• A two-hour daily usage limit.
• No platform access between midnight and 6 am.
• Fewer notifications during school hours.
• Hidden like and reaction counts.

Global reaction: Countries are taking different steps to mitigate the dangers of social media. Australia has restricted usage for users under 16, while the European Union is examining addictive design, content recommendation algorithms, and other platform features under the Digital Services Act.

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India’s online travel market has grown into a major ecommerce category, in excess of $30 billion. Now, artificial intelligence (AI) is pushing the sector beyond simple ticket and hotel bookings towards more conversational, personalised travel discovery, planning, and post-booking support.

Market growth: Online platforms account for about one in every two travel bookings in India. Motilal Oswal Financial Services projects the market will grow from Rs 2.1 lakh crore in 2023 to Rs 3.8 lakh crore by 2028, while online penetration rises from 54% to 65%.

Companies like MakeMyTrip and IRCTC indicate the sector’s scale, with market capitalisations of about $5.7 billion and $4.7 billion, respectively.

Discover, not decide: Most travellers are comfortable using AI for planning. Yet many still want to review the final choice themselves, checking price, baggage rules, layovers, flexibility, and cancellation terms.