upGrad wraps up Unacademy acquisition at $200M

upGrad has completed its acquisition of Unacademy in an all-stock transaction worth a little over $200 million, marking a major deal in the edtech industry.

The M&A transaction, which brings together two major edtech businesses, gives upGrad an entry into the online test-preparation segment. It also helps upGrad connect with learners across more touchpoints.

A notable chapter comes to an end

The deal closes a notable chapter for Unacademy. At its peak in 2021, the company, which specialises in test preparation for competitive exams, was valued at about $3.4 billion. The final deal value is more than 90% lower than that high, highlighting how sharply investor expectations for consumer edtech have changed since the pandemic-era boom.

Unacademy's co-founder and chief executive officer Gaurav Munjal has acknowledged the gap. “Six years ago today, Unacademy became a unicorn. Today, Unacademy has closed its acquisition by UpGrad for just over $200M. We raised at a peak, but sold at a fraction of that. I’m not going to dress these facts up,” he said in a LinkedIn post.

Munjal pointed out that the company was in a stronger financial position than the acquisition price alone suggests. He said Unacademy had revenue, or topline, of around Rs 400 crore, that most of its businesses were profitable or close to profitability, and that it had Rs 900 crore in the bank. He also stressed that the acquisition was a choice rather than a rescue forced by a cash crisis.

“For a company with that financial position, the decision to sell is best understood as a strategic one rather than an emergency transaction,” Munjal wrote. He said the more he understood Ronnie Screwvala’s (co-founder of upGrad) vision for upGrad, the clearer it became that combining the businesses could be “a better path for the ecosystem, not just for us”.

Journey from a YouTube channel

Unacademy began as a YouTube channel in 2010 and became a formal edtech platform in 2015. It expanded rapidly into live learning and competitive-exam preparation, and built a large network of educators around its platform.

Munjal emphasised the role of educators in a country's development and the company’s journey. “Unacademy’s free platform created a generation of celebrity educators. Educators are a cornerstone of any economy, and they should be celebrated, and our platform enabled that in our country. Their YouTube videos crossed 10 billion views,” he said.

He also mentioned Airlearn, Unacademy's language-learning product, saying it became one of the world’s three most-downloaded language-learning apps in under two years.

A deal that nearly did not happen

The completion of the acquisition is notable because the same transaction had appeared to collapse only months earlier. upGrad withdrew from negotiations in January after the companies failed to agree on valuation. At the time, Screwvala said the parties had been unable to reach a mutually agreeable valuation. The earlier proposed deal had been at roughly $300 million.

The negotiations returned in March, when the companies signed a term sheet for a 100% share-swap deal. In an all-stock transaction, the seller’s shareholders receive shares in the buyer rather than a cash payment. At that stage, the two sides said the valuation would be disclosed only after closing.

The Competition Commission of India approved the proposed combination on July 7. The regulator said the transaction would allow upGrad to enter the online test-preparation segment and broaden the range of learners it serves.

Why upGrad wants Unacademy

Founded in 2015, upGrad is best known for its online upskilling and career advancement courses for working professionals. It focuses on higher education, professional learning, and career development. On the other hand, Unacademy specialises in competitive-exam preparation and direct-to-learner online education.

The acquisition therefore fills a product gap for upGrad and gives it access to learners early in their education journey. This aligns with Screwvala’s stated ambition of building a business that can serve people from the school level through higher education and continuing professional development.

upGrad’s FY26 numbers also help explain the timing. The company reported gross revenue of Rs 2,070 crore, up 7 %, while Ind-AS EBITDA, a measure of operating profitability before certain accounting charges, increased more than eight-fold to Rs 123 crore. The company has said it is pursuing growth through both organic expansion and acquisitions. 

A different edtech market

The broader edtech industry has moved from rapid expansion to consolidation. The pandemic accelerated online education, but the return of classroom learning exposed the weaknesses of businesses built around high customer acquisition costs, heavy discounting, and ambitious growth assumptions. Byju’s collapse and insolvency proceedings served as a reminder of a faulty foundation.

However, the edtech space has not completely vanished, it has had to realign its priorities based on evolving market realities and consumer expectations. PhysicsWallah’s stock-market debut in November 2025, which briefly valued the company at about $5.2 billion, showed that investors could still back education businesses with stronger economics and a mix of online and offline offerings.

For Unacademy, the merger is less about recreating its 2021 valuation and more about finding a durable role in a maturing market. The acquisition provides upGrad greater scale and wider offerings, while Unacademy enters its next phase after a dramatic valuation reset.