Edtech is a very deep category and I am still bullish: Unacademy’s Gaurav Munjal

Gaurav Munjal, Co-founder and CEO of Unacademy—currently India’s most-valued edtech unicorn, said that he continues to remain bullish on edtech, instilling confidence in the sector that has witnessed a massive change in fortune over the past two years.

“Flipkart and Amazon have never made a single profit and they have been around for a lot of years. I still think that edtech is a very deep category, whether it is test-prep or higher ed or K-12 (kindergarten to class 12), and I am still bullish,” said Munjal in a fireside chat with YourStory Founder and CEO Shradha Sharma at TechSparks 2024 in Mumbai.

He recalled the times when ecommerce was going through a bad phase. "Every day you [would] wake up, you would read that some down round has happened for Flipkart or some private equity has given them a lower valuation, I think we [edtech] are going through that phase,” Munjal noted.

Munjal’s comments come at a time when investors have turned a blind eye to India’s edtech sector, which was the most sought-after segment during the pandemic, with global investors pouring billions of dollars into online education, betting on India’s large population. 

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However, with schools, colleges and physical tuition centres reopening post the pandemic, demand for online learning dropped as students flocked to traditional, offline coaching institutes. 

Consequently, companies like Unacademy and Physics Wallah, which had digital-first platforms, also pivoted to offline coaching and opened institutes in the country’s famous coaching hubs like Kota. In fact, for Unacademy, offline coaching institutes now comprise nearly half of the company’s consolidated revenue, Munjal said.

Munjal also talked about how some companies in the edtech space have continued doing well despite headwinds.

“There are some really good companies being built, whether it's upGrad or PhysicsWallah," Munjal said, stopping short of praising Aakash and instead commending Allen's work in the offline space.

“The moment one of us goes public, and people realise how much profit pools are there in education, I think people will start talking about edtech again,” Munjal added.