Unacademy co-founders Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini to step away from their roles

Unacademy co-founders Gaurav Munjal and Roman Saini are stepping away from their day-to-day roles at the edtech firm as they shift their focus to AirLearn, the company’s language learning app, which is expected to be spun off into a separate entity, people familiar with the matter told YourStory.

Sumit Jain, Founder of Graphy—which was acquired by Unacademy a few years ago and who was elevated to co-founder status in 2023—is expected to take over the reins of the edtech company, sources said.

The Economic Times, which first reported the development, said, the exit of the founders follows over a year of internal talks between Munjal, the Board, and shareholders about Unacademy’s future.

In September 2024, when The CapTable had reached out to Unacademy to check if the founders are indeed stepping down, all its board members and the founders had issued a “strong denial” saying “these are baseless rumours”.

Hemesh Singh, the third co-founder, had stepped down as chief technology officer to take on an advisory role in June 2024.

YourStory has reached out to Unacademy with queries.

Munjal and Saini’s departure comes as the Bengaluru-based company has shifted its focus to offline operations in a bid to revive growth, following a decline in revenue from its core online test preparation business in the post-pandemic environment.

More importantly, a potential merger or sale involving the edtech company did not materialise, partly due to differences in Unacademy’s valuation, sources noted.

In a social media post last July, Munjal said the edtech company had engaged in exploratory merger talks with other market players.

Even after the failed merger talks with Allen and Aakash, the company has explored potential mergers with other edtech players, including PhysicsWallah and larger education firms, as Unacademy’s investors continue to push for an acquisition, The CapTable had reported.

While the company reduced its losses by cutting overall expenditure by 40.5% year-on-year in FY24, its operating revenue declined, underscoring ongoing challenges.

The Bengaluru-based firm has also undergone significant top-level churn over the past year, with multiple leadership departures, new appointments, and internal promotions.

In November last year, Hardik Pandya, Unacademy’s senior vice president of design and product, announced his departure after a four-year stint. In October, the company promoted Arooshi Singh to head of HR, succeeding Sandhydeep Purri, who had been appointed chief people officer in November 2023.

Some other notable top-level departures from Unacademy include Arnab Dutta, senior vice president; Subramanian Ramachandran, chief financial officer; Vivek Sinha, chief operating officer; and Abhyudaya Rana, vice president and chief of staff at the CTO’s Office.

Airlearn

Amid these developments, Munjal has consistently expressed his enthusiasm on social media about Unacademy’s language learning app Airlearn (formerly Unacademy Languages). Launched in India in June 2024, the app is positioned to compete with global language learning platforms like Duolingo and Babbel.

Last month, Munjal claimed that Airlearn is the fastest-growing tech product within the Unacademy Group, with nearly 70,000 daily active users and $2 million in annual recurring revenue over the past 12 months.

“It makes sense for Unacademy and Gaurav (Munjal) to hive it (Airlearn) off. That’s how he can raise new funds for it and run it as a separate startup with a lot more freedom,” The Captable reported last September, quoting a venture capital investor.“But it would have made more sense if Unacademy was settled and then Gaurav had looked to expand with another entity. Right now, if Gaurav hives it off and starts running it, then the main Unacademy business, which is already facing a lack of vision, will further struggle.”

Unacademy narrowed its losses by nearly two-thirds, but what’s concerning is the decline in operating revenue in FY 2023-24 compared to the previous year.

The Bengaluru-based firm reported a consolidated loss of Rs 630.9 crore in FY24, a fall of 62.4% from Rs 1,678.1 crore recorded in the earlier fiscal period. Meanwhile, its operating revenue fell 7.4% year-on-year to Rs 839.8 crore in FY24. The company has not filed its FY25 financials.

Founded by Munjal, Saini, and Singh in 2015, Unacademy has so far raised over $800 million in funding.

(The article was updated with additional information.)