UpGrad completes Unacademy acquisition for over $200 million

The Ronnie Screwvala-led UpGrad has completed its acquisition of Unacademy for "just over $200 million," cofounder and chief executive Gaurav Munjal said on Tuesday, marking the close of a major consolidation in India’s edtech sector. The final value was more than 90% below test-prep company Unacademy’s peak valuation.

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.”

The acquisition is a 100% share-swap transaction under which Unacademy’s investors will receive UpGrad shares. ET first reported on May 4 that the transaction was in its final stages at an envisaged value of Rs 2,055 crore.


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

Munjal said Unacademy has a topline of around Rs 400 crore, with most businesses profitable or close to profitability, and Rs 900 crore in the bank. The cash balance amounts to nearly half the transaction value. He said the company was under no pressure to sell and could have continued independently, but chose the merger as a better path for its ecosystem and shareholders.


Unacademy educators’ YouTube videos have crossed 10 billion views, while AirLearn has become one of the world’s three most-downloaded language-learning apps in under two years, Munjal said. AirLearn will also be part of UpGrad hereafter.

Unacademy, PrepLadder, AirLearn and Graphy will operate from Bengaluru, with PrepLadder’s headquarters shifting from Chandigarh.

Munjal will continue as Unacademy’s chief executive. The company has completed an employee stock option exercise worth Rs 45 crore, in which around 1,000 of its 1,100 former employees participated.

Unacademy completed four employee stock option buybacks that created value for employees, although its founders and investors made little in the process, said Munjal.

The companies began negotiations in November 2025, but called off the talks in January after failing to agree on the valuation. The deal was revived in March, when Munjal and Screwvala announced a term sheet for a 100% share swap carrying a break fee. The Competition Commission of India cleared the merger on July 7.

Unacademy, backed by SoftBank and Peak XV Partners, was valued at $3.4 billion in 2021. UpGrad’s fair value was pegged at $1.7 billion, or Rs 15,980 crore, as of February 28, 2026, according to a valuation report seen by ET. The acquisition gives UpGrad an entry into online test preparation and was projected to add Rs 500 crore to its consolidated sales.

The transaction comes amid a reset across Indian edtech, where companies have cut costs, exited businesses and pursued consolidation after pandemic-era online learning growth slowed and funding tightened.