BackUnacademy raises $150 million led by SoftBank, valuation triples to $1.45 bn
The fundraising is Softbank's first investment in an Indian firm since December, when it had backed eyewear retailer Lenskart. It has over the past year slowed down new bets globally, following the IPO debacle at portfolio firm WeWork
PremiumNEW DELHI: Edtech platform Unacademy has raised $150 million, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2i , trebling its valuation to $1.45 billion. Existing investors General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Facebook, and Blume Ventures also participated in the round.
Unacademy is now a part of the coveted unicorn club of startups and is the second most valued edtech startup after Byju’s, which is valued at $10.5 billion.
Unacademy plans to utilize the funds to launch new products and grow the organisation.
“Learning from the best experts to achieve a life goal has mostly been a privilege, available only to those living in the top few cities of the country. At Unacademy, we are breaking that barrier and helping people achieve their life's most important goals by giving them access to the best coaching from experts in the field," said Gaurav Munjal, Co-Founder and CEO, Unacademy.
The startup, which is now the official partner for the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the next three seasons, had raised money at a valuation of $510 million just six months ago.
Munjal on Saturday had tweeted with a “unicorn" emoji, leaving everyone guessing if the fundraising was done.
“By bringing quality education to a vast network of students for the first time, Unacademy is bridging the privilege gap in India," said Munish Varma, Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers.
The fundraising is also Softbank's first investment in an Indian firm since December, when it had backed eyewear retailer Lenskart. The technology investor has over the past year slowed down new bets globally, following the IPO debacle at portfolio firm WeWork.
SoftBank Vision Fund’s other big Indian portfolio companies include Oyo, Paytm, PolicyBazaar and Delhivery.
In February, Unacademy had raised $110 million from Facebook, General Atlantic, and Sequoia at a valuation of $510 million. In July, it had acquired Chandigarh-based PrepLadder, a postgraduate medical entrance exam preparation platform, for $50 million, which will strengthen its presence in the medical entrance categories, such as NEET PG and Foreign Medical Graduates Exam (FMGE).
As a part of its inorganic growth strategy, Unacademy had in March acquired Kreatryx (an online preparation platform for GATE and the Engineering Services Exam). In October 2018, it had acquired WiFiStudy, an online learning platform on YouTube.
In the last three months, Unacademy has recorded a 100% increase in its paid subscriber base, with the average daily watch time across its platforms also witnessing a 100% increase. The monthly watch time minutes also touched an all-time high of over 1 billion.
Additionally, over 525,000 learners attempted various mock tests on the platform for competitive examinations such as UPSC, NEET-PG, and CAT among others during this period.
This year has turned out well for India’s edtech space, as educational institutions and offline classes were disrupted following the covid-19 outbreak.
Other learning platforms like Vedantu raised $100 million funding during the pandemic, doubling its valuation to $600 mn. Edtech startup Toppr raised $50 million during the pandemic. Last week, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's philanthropic organisation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative participated in the edtech firm Eruditus's $113 million fundraise.
Ed-tech startups have also seen a massive jump in VC investments in the first six months of 2020, according to data from Venture Intelligence research. Startups in education have already raised around $795 million (25 deals) funding in this period, largely led by Byju’s.
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