SoftBank leads $150m injection into India’s Unacademy

SoftBank is leading a US$150 million funding round of India’s Unacademy, bringing the online learning startup’s valuation to US$1.4 billion.

Photo credit: Unacademy

Other investors taking part include existing backers Facebook and Sequoia Capital, Livemint reported. The round roughly tripled the company’s valuation from just US$510 million in February, when it bagged US$110 million in a series E fundraise led by General Atlantic, Facebook, and Sequoia India.

Established in 2015, the Bengaluru-based company provides content for competitive examinations as well as short educational videos and live interactive classes on different subjects. It recently launched a subscription plan for various exam types after initially offering just free classes.

At present, the startup has over 30 million registered users and 350,000 paying subscribers, up from just 90,000 active subscribers back in Februrary. It also had more than 1 million videos on its platform around that time.

The funding comes as the Covid-19 pandemic boosts interest in online education. Byju’s, one of the biggest names in edtech worldwide, said it attracted 6 million new users in March and another 7.5 million in April.

It recently hit a valuation of US$10.5 billion after securing new funding from US investor Bond Capital in June and  US$200 million from Tiger Global in January this year.

Several other startups in the edtech space received funding in the past few months. Vedantu secured US$24 million in an extended series C round led by GGV Capital. InterviewBit, a startup also backed by Tiger Global and Sequoia India, banked US$20 million in its series A round in January.