Unacademy now ‘default alive’, to cut cash burn to Rs 200 crore in 2025: CEO Gaurav Munjal

SoftBank-backed edtech startup Unacademy is targeting a significant reduction in cash burn, aiming to bring it down to under Rs 200 crore in calendar year 2025, from more than Rs 1,000 crore three years ago, cofounder and chief executive Gaurav Munjal said in a post on social platform X.

“Significant improvement in cash burn in the core business. Three years ago, we used to burn more than Rs 1,000 crore; this CY (calendar year), it will be under Rs 200 crore. This is half of what we did last year,” Munjal wrote.

He also added that the company is now in a “default alive” state, with Rs 1,200 crore in the bank—a term that refers to startups being financially stable enough to survive without additional external funding.


Munjal said that two of Unacademy’s businesses—Graphy and PrepLadder—have started generating cash on a monthly basis.

• PrepLadder, acquired in 2020, is a post-graduate medical entrance exam prep platform.
• Graphy allows educators to create and monetise online courses.

Founded in 2015 by Munjal, Hemesh Singh, and Roman Saini, Unacademy began as a YouTube channel before evolving into a full-fledged edtech platform. It has raised $880 million from investors including SoftBank, Peak XV Partners, General Atlantic, and Tiger Global.

In the offline segment, Munjal said nearly 70% of Unacademy’s centres are expected to become profitable at the centre level in 2025.

Unacademy operates in India’s competitive test prep market alongside Aakash Institute (owned by Byju’s), Allen Career Institute (backed by Bodhi Tree Systems), and PhysicsWallah (backed by WestBridge Capital).

In FY24, 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.

Earlier this month, Munjal said the company’s new language-learning app, Airlearn, now has over 70,000 daily users and close to 300,000 monthly active users. The app competes with global player Duolingo.

Reflecting on past strategic decisions, Munjal said, “Any edtech (and we have done this mistake in the past) that goes after multiple acquisitions to grow is bound to fail. It just doesn’t work in this market. So keeping the ‘blinders on’ and not worrying about who is acquiring whom—and focusing on profit—is the only way to go.”

As reported by ET on December 4, Unacademy had been in discussions with Allen Career Institute for a potential sale, which could value the company at $800 million—a steep drop from its $3.4 billion peak valuation in 2021.