Unacademy to record best year of growth, ignore rumours: CEO Gaurav Munjal clarifies after latest layoff round

Unacademy founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Gaurav Munjal has clarified that the online edtech major will record its best year of growth and profitability in 2024, and urged people to ‘ignore rumours’. Munjal added that Unacademy has several years of runway and that he is building it for the long run.

Also Read: Unacademy lays off 250 employees amid reports of a potential merger

The clarification comes one day after Unacademy announced its latest round of layoffs where 250 employees were handed over pink slips. Taking to microblogging platform ‘X’, Munjal said, ‘’There is a lot being said about Unacademy currently. To set the record straight, Unacademy will have its best year in terms of growth and profitability. We also have many years of runway. We are building Unacademy for the long run. Ignore the rumours.''

Munjal also posted a quote by Mark Twain that said, ‘’Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated,'' referring to reports of Unacademy's downfall after rival Byju's fall from grace. Since 2022, Indian tech startups have laid off a total of about 20,000 employees due to mounting debt and cash crunch troubles.

Recently, Munjal shared his take on the current state of affairs at Byju's and said the edtech's CEO Byju Raveendran had stopped listening and failed to have people who could give him the right feedback. In a post on ‘X’, he stated the importance of ‘blunt feedback’ in running a business. “He put himself on a pedestal and stopped listening,'' said Munjal on Raveendran.

LiveMint reported on July 2 that Unacademy has laid off about 250 employees across departments, including 150 in sales, amid reports of a potential merger with another online platform. About 100 employees were asked to leave as part of a recent restructuring, and the rest were performance-based layoffs for the year, sources told LiveMint.

Also Read: Unacademy moved fast to break things. It ended up with a fracture

An Unacademy spokesperson confirmed the development without providing more details on the number of employees or roles affected. Recent reports have suggested that Unacademy is exploring a potential merger with K-12 Techno Services. Last month, co-founder Hemesh Singh also stepped down as the chief technology officer (CTO) of Unacademy and moved on to an advisory position.

Unacademy has recorded multiple rounds of layoffs since 2022, affecting at least 2,000 employees so far. In 2022-23, the test-prep platform trimmed its losses to ₹1,678 crore from ₹2,847 crore in the year prior, but that was still nearly double its revenue of ₹907 crore that financial year. So far, Unacademy has secured a total funding of $877 million from the likes of SoftBank Group, Temasek, Blume Ventures, Peak XV Partners, and Nexus Venture Partners.