Unacademy cofounder Sumit Jain appointed chief executive of the test-prep business

Unacademy's cofounder Sumit Jain has been appointed as the chief executive of the test-prep business, cofounder Gaurav Munjal said on Wednesday.

Jain joined Unacademy after he sold his startup Opentalk to the edtech company. He had also founded real estate listing portal Commonfloor and sold it to Quikr, an online classifieds operator, in 2016.

ET reported on May 28 about Munjal’s plans to step down from his role as CEO and hand over the reins to Jain, amid a broader reset at the Bengaluru-based edtech company.


“Sumit joined us as cofounder in 2020 and has been instrumental in significantly improving the unit economics of our test prep business and more importantly the learner experience,” Munjal said on X.

Cofounder Roman Saini also moved out of an active role at the firm.

Munjal and Saini, along with Hemesh Singh, who left the startup in June 2024, had cofounded Unacademy in 2015 as a YouTube channel.

The development followed a failed acquisition deal and sharpening focus on its language learning app, AirLearn, which competes with global player Duolingo.

ET had reported on December 4 last year that Unacademy was in talks with Kota-based Allen Career Institute for a potential acquisition, valuing the company at around $800 million, a steep cut of more than 75% from its peak valuation of $3.4 billion. The deal talks eventually failed over differences in valuation.

In the test-prep segment, it competes with the likes of Byju’s-owned Aakash Institute and WestBridge Capital-backed PhysicsWallah, which is set to list on the public markets.

In 2023-24, Unacademy’s operating revenue fell 7% to Rs 840 crore from Rs 907 crore in the previous fiscal, while net loss narrowed to Rs 631 crore from Rs 1,678 crore. It is yet to file its financials for 2024-25.

In April, Munjal said that Unacademy is targeting a sharp reduction in cash burn, to under Rs 200 crore in 2025 from more than Rs 1,000 crore three years ago.