Unacademy appoints Sandhydeep Purri as chief people officer

Test preparation startup Unacademy on Wednesday said it has appointed Sandhydeep Purri as its chief people officer. Purri is a seasoned human resources (HR) professional with over 25 years of experience in leadership roles across diverse industries and geographies, as per a statement.

Prior to joining Unacademy, Purri was chief people officer at Sapphire Foods, overseeing HR strategies for brands such as Pizza Hut and KFC. Before that, she worked at Aditya Birla Group’s retail sector.

The development comes a day after news broke on the resignation of the Bengaluru-headquartered company’s chief financial officer Subramanian Ramachandran.


Ramachandran’s exit was the second among chief executive Gaurav Munjal's team of direct reportees since August when chief operating officer Vivek Sinha took to LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter) to announce his resignation.

“I look forward to collaborating with the talented team at Unacademy and driving transformative business initiatives that will contribute to the company's continued growth and success through the people charter,” Purri said.

The startup, like its peers in the test prep and K-12 segment, is currently undergoing a shift in strategy after multiple rounds of layoffs to prioritise the unit economics that put it on a path to profitability.

“Her (Purri’s) leadership will undoubtedly be pivotal in cultivating talent and championing a culture of innovation and progress at Unacademy,” founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal said.

Unacademy was founded by Munjal, Hemesh Singh and Roman Saini in 2015. Prior to that, it was a YouTube channel that Munjal had started in 2010. Since then, it has expanded across verticals of Unacademy, Graphy, UnacademyX, NextLevel and Prepladder.