"Obviously, no": Ronnie Screwvala replies to upGrad–Unacademy merger question
Ronnie Screwvala, Co-founder and Chairperson of upGrad, was responding to a question asked by YourStory's Shradha Sharma on recent news reports of him putting a bid for SoftBank-backed Unacademy.
Over the past few days, headlines have been abuzz with reports of Ronnie Screwvala, Chairperson and Co-founder of upGrad, one of India’s few surviving edtech companies, placing a bid to acquire SoftBank-backed Unacademy at roughly a tenth of its last valuation.
But when asked about it on stage by YourStory’s Founder and CEO Shradha Sharma during a fireside chat at TechSparks 2025, Screwvala sidestepped the question before flatly denying the report, albeit with a knowing smile.
“What do you want me to say on stage? Obviously, no,” he quipped. “I’ve been in the media for 20 years, I know how to handle these situations.”
While Screwvala publicly brushed off the speculation, sources told YourStory on Thursday that upGrad has placed a bid to acquire Unacademy at a valuation of $300 to 400 million, marking what could be one of the largest consolidations in India’s edtech space. For context, Unacademy was last valued at $3.4 billion after raising $400 million from Japan’s SoftBank Group in 2021.
The potential merger comes at a time when India's most-valued edtech unicorn, PhysicsWallah, is gearing up for a public listing next week, becoming the first edtech to hit Dalal Street.
Sources told YourStory that upGrad, which is preparing for a public listing in the coming quarters, is looking to acquire Unacademy to bolster its balance sheet and add roughly $100 million in annual revenue. The proposed transaction, they added, would be structured entirely as a share-swap deal, with no cash component involved.
Screwvala also highlighted the need for frugality among founders, a principle he’s consistently spoken about in recent years, especially as India’s startup ecosystem, now the third-largest in the world, navigates a prolonged funding winter.
Screwvala, also a vocal critic of India's heavily-funded edtech startups, reiterated his stance saying that the sector got a lot more money than it needed, and blamed the bloated fundraises and valuations for the failure of what was once India's fastest-growing sector.
