Facebook-backed Unacademy eyes unicorn club; in talks to raise $100-150 million

Facebook-backed Unacademy eyes unicorn club; in talks to raise $100-150 million

The funding bid comes less than four months after Unacademy raised $110 million in a financing round spearheaded by Facebook and New York-headquartered private equity firm General Atlantic, which are the existing investors in the online platform

Gaurav Munjal, co-founer of Unacademy had in March said that the online platform surpassed a watch time of 1 billion minutes, whilst educators took 1 lakh live classes

Education technology startup Unacademy is holding talks with investors to raise $100-150 million in fresh funding.

The Facebook-backed startup is eyeing to enter the coveted unicorn club with the said valuation.

General Atlantic and Steadview Capital, with stakes in Unacademy, are expected to double their holding, while several global strategic and financial investors, comprising US-based hedge funds and Chinese game giant Tencent have already booked interest in the ed-tech firm at a likely valuation of over $1 billion, sources told The Economic Times.

The funding bid comes less than four months after Unacademy raised $110 million in a financing round spearheaded by Facebook and New York-headquartered private equity firm General Atlantic, which are the existing investors in the online platform.

"At this point, there are multiple funds in the mix. The final contours will be finalised in four to six weeks," a source told the news daily.

Gaurav Munjal, co-founer of Unacademy had in March said that the online platform surpassed a watch time of 1 billion minutes, whilst educators took 1 lakh live classes.

The company has also started subscriptions for class 9-12, recruiting teachers across India. An investor told the news daily that ed-tech firm has witnessed massive growth in the past few months "and the belief is that Covid-19 can structurally change consumption of education to online" in the country.

Unacademy boasts of the likes of Blume Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Steadview Capital, Sequoia Capital, Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy, and co-founder of B2B ecommerce platform Udaan, Sujeet Kumar among its list of investors.