🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Unacademy’s acquisition price was about 90% below its peak valuation

• The 20.6 billion rupees (US$213 million) deal valued Unacademy at roughly 90% below its peak of about US$3.44 billion, reached in a 2021 funding round 1.
• After the pandemic, demand moved toward offline classes while rivals charged less. Unacademy also grew “complacent” during its “most difficult three years,” said Gaurav Munjal, founder of Unacademy 2.
• The slide came with deep losses. Unacademy posted a consolidated loss of 28.5 billion rupees (US$295 million) in FY22 and cut staff in several rounds in 2022 3.

The deal opens another round of consolidation in India’s edtech sector

• The purchase adds to the retreat from the pandemic-era edtech boom, when many companies chased growth at any cost 2.
• Cash-rich education technology companies in India can now buy weaker rivals at sharp discounts. The pressure is also clear at Byju’s, an Indian online education company that entered insolvency proceedings after its valuation was written down to effectively zero 2.
• For upGrad, which mainly focuses on higher education, the deal offers a way into online test prep for JEE, India’s Joint Entrance Examination for engineering colleges, and NEET, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for medical courses, without building that operation from scratch 4.