Unacademy to issue $40 million in stock options to teachers over next few years

Ed-tech company Unacademy will offer stock options to educators on its platform, cofounder and chief executive Gaurav Munjal said.

Typically, stock options or Employee Stock Ownership Plans (Esops) are reserved for permanent employees and are used as a tool to attract talent at fledgling startups and big technology firms.

This is the first time that an education technology firm is issuing ‘Teachers Stock Options’ (TSOPs) - as Munjal called it in his video message - to its educators.


Munjal said the company should have executed the issuance of TSOPs long ago for educators to have a skin in the game.

“Unacademy educators will be eligible for fully vested stock grants on completion of three, four and five years... On Day One (which is today), we already have more than 300 educators eligible for the grant which they will get immediately. Over the next few years, we will give grants of over $40 million to our educators,” Munjal said in a series of tweets on Thursday.


“The stocks will continue to compound as the valuation of the company grows. You can expect the stock to grow multiple folds and by the time we do an IPO (Initial Public Offering), the value of your stock would’ve grown a lot,” he said in the video posted on video messaging for work platform Loom.

The company has not yet announced a definite timeline for an IPO.

These stock options can be liquidated when the company is conducting share buybacks, a common practice among growth-stage startups. True wealth is created through stocks, Munjal said.

“We are who we are because of our Educators and we want our Educators to grow and create wealth as Unacademy grows!” Munjal tweeted.

Also Read: Startups have an Esops fable to tell

In a separate video, he said Unacademy will have one of the best IPOs because it is building a good technology-first company which does not believe in mis-selling — unlike others in the industry.

Munjal said Unacademy’s revenue and valuation grew 10 times in the last 18 months.

The company has more than 4,000 team members and over 4,000 educators.

Unacademy is backed by investors such as Tiger Global, SoftBank Vision Fund II, Dragoneer Investment Group, Facebook, General Atlantic, and Sequoia India.

Also Read: Unacademy acquires live game streaming platform Rheo TV