Acquired by upGrad in an all-stock share swap completed 1 September 2026, valuing it at about $206M (₹19.55B).
The rise & fall
8 moments · 2015–2026
The key moments, with employee sentiment along the way.
2015
🌱
2015
From YouTube channel to startup
Gaurav Munjal's educational YouTube channel becomes a Bangalore company offering live classes and test prep.
Wikipedia
2020
🦄
2020
Joins the unicorn club
A SoftBank-backed round in the pandemic edtech boom pushes India's test-prep giant past $1B.
TechCrunch
Aug 2021
📈
Aug 2021
The peak: $3.44B on the edtech boom$3.44B
Temasek, SoftBank and Tiger Global fund the top tick of India's online-learning frenzy.
TechCrunch
2022–24
2022–24
Classrooms reopen, demand collapses
Offline coaching roars back, growth reverses, and cost cuts arrive in wave after wave.
TechCrunch
2022–24
💬
From the inside · Glassdoor reviews, 2022–24
Glassdoor reviews from the downturn described the retrenchment: recurring layoffs and abrupt category shutdowns that unsettled job security, trimmed incentives, perks and appraisals, and sales staff straining to hit targets for a product that grew harder to sell once offline coaching returned.
2024
💔
2024
Falls out of the club
Years of retrenchment leave the pandemic darling below the $1B line.
TechCrunch
2025
🤝
2025
upGrad takeover talks — all-stock, ~$300–400M
By December 2025 the founder pegs the company's worth under $500M — roughly a tenth of its peak — as a share-swap sale to upGrad takes shape.
TechCrunch
Sep 2026
🏁
Sep 2026
Sold to upGrad for about $206M in stock$206M
The share swap closes on 1 September 2026 at ₹19.55B, about 94% below the peak. Unacademy shareholders receive upGrad stock.
TechCrunch
💬 entries paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗; dated facts carry their source.
How it happened
Unacademy was one of India's largest online learning platforms, offering live classes and test prep, and rode the pandemic edtech boom to a $3.44B valuation in an August 2021 round backed by Temasek, SoftBank and Tiger Global.
When classrooms reopened and demand for online test prep collapsed, growth reversed and repeated cost cuts followed; by December 2025 its founder valued it under $500M. upGrad completed an all-stock acquisition worth about $206M on September 1, 2026.
Source: TechCrunch / Open The Magazine / Entrepreneur India ($3.44B peak Aug 2021 with Temasek, SoftBank, Tiger Global; founder said <$500M by Dec 2025; upGrad 100% share-swap acquisition completed 1 Sep 2026 at ₹19.55B, about $206M, per upGrad co-founder Ronnie Screwvala to TechCrunch; an equity valuation, with roughly ₹9B of cash on Unacademy's balance sheet at closing)
