Unacademy closes $440 million funding round at $3.44 billion valuation

Bengaluru: Edtech major, Unacademy Group, has raised $440 million as a part of its latest round of funding, led by Singapore state-owned Temasek Holdings, valuing the startup at $3.44 billion.

The round also saw participation from Mirae Asset and existing investors Softbank Vision Fund 2, General Atlantic, and Tiger Global. Zomato Ltd founder Deepinder Goyal and OYO founder Ritesh Agarwal also participated as a part of the round.

The present funding comes within a year of the startup raising an undisclosed amount in November 2020, which valued the company at $2 billion. Unacademy had also raised $150 million in September 2020, at a valuation of $1.45 billion, which marked its entry into India’s coveted unicorn club.

Unacademy plans to use the funding to scale its new lines of business as it looks to double down and scale in its presence in the upskilling and job search market.

“There are three major products that we will build and scale (or continue scaling) - Unacademy, helping people crack life-changing exams; Relevel, giving people a path to get their dream job irrespective of their educational background and Graphy, empowering creators to build their online businesses to sell digital goods including NFTs,” said Gaurav Munjal, founder, Unacademy on micro-blogging website Twitter while announcing the fundraise.

With this, Unacademy is taking up the fight against upGrad and Blackstone-backed Simplilearn, which have been focussing on the upskilling market. Recently, BYJU’s also acquired upskilling and reskilling platform, Great Learning, and is expected to shell out $600 million for the deal, marking its entry into the highly contested segment.

Last week, Unacademy also announced the launch of Teacher Stock Options (TSOPs) for all educators on its platform. Through the initiative, Unacademy educators will be eligible for fully vested stock grants on completion of three, four and five years with Unacademy respectively.

“On Day 1 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 tweeted.

Unacademy is also expected to use the current fundraise to make newer acquisitions in the education space.

Last week, it announced the acquisition of game streaming platform Rheo TV, marking its eighth acquisition since March 2020.

It also acquired networking platform TapChief earlier this year for an undisclosed amount.