Ronnie Screwvala puts a bid for Unacademy at $300M-400M valuation

Ronnie Screwvala of upGrad, one of India's few surviving edtech firms, has placed a bid to buy SoftBank-backed Unacademy at a valuation of $300 million to $400 million, a steep markdown from its previous valuation of $3.4 billion, three people with knowledge of the matter told YourStory.

upGrad, which is gearing up to go public in the coming quarters, wants to buy Unacademy to shore up its cash reserves and also add about $100 million to its revenue, the people said, requesting anonymity.

The transaction, however, will be a complete share-swap, and upGrad will not pay cash for the deal, they added.

YourStory had reached out to Ronnie Screwvala this afternoon, but he did not respond to queries. Gaurav Munjal, Co-founder of Unacademy, also did not respond.

If approved, the merger would rank among the largest in India’s edtech industry, which experienced a significant boom during the pandemic when online learning was in high demand. However, since 2022, the sector has faced a series of challenges, including a prolonged funding winter and students’ steady return to offline classrooms.

The development comes at a time when PhysicsWallah, currently India’s most-valued edtech startup, prepares to go public next week.

The WestBridge-backed edtech firm founded by Alakh Pandey directly competes with Unacademy in the test-prep space. It is also expanding into higher education, a turf in whcih upGrad is strong.

upgrad last raised funds from Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek in 2024, at a valuation of $2.25 billion. Screwvala also bought Bharti Enterprise's stake worth $20 million in the same round, according to media reports.

Last week, the company reported that it turned EBITDA positive in FY25, with an operating revenue of Rs 1,943 crore. Its revenue has grown steadily over the past three years.

On the other hand, Unacademy has seen its revenue drop in the last three years: from Rs 1,044 crore in FY23, to Rs 820 crore in FY25, a report by Entrackr said. However, the company has managed to cut its losses to Rs 305 crore, the report said. Unacademy is yet to publicly file its FY25 results.