Unacademy becomes a unicorn after raising $150 million

The Bengaluru-based company joins a handful of other start-ups in the ed-tech space that has been attracting considerable investor interest of late.

Unacademy has raised $150 million in a round of funding led by SoftBank valuing the ed-tech firm at $1.45 billion, the company said in a statement. The five-year-old start-up, now a unicorn, also raised money from existing investors General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Facebook, and Blume Ventures. It has so far mopped up about $350 million.

The latest infusion comes barely six months after Unacademy raised $110 million from Facebook, General Atlantic and a clutch of other investors at a valuation of about $510 million. In June 2019, it had raised $50 million from investors.

The Bengaluru-based company joins a handful of other start-ups in the ed-tech space that has been attracting considerable investor interest of late. Last week, billionaire Yuri Milner-led DST Global infused a fresh $122 million in rival Byju’s which is expected to invest more capital in the firm.

Byju’s was valued at $10.5 billion in late June after it secured the backing of US-based Bond.

Earlier this week, Eruditus raised $113 million from investors, including Chang Zuckerberg Initiative, giving it a post-money valuation of $800 million. In July, US-based Coatue led a $100-million funding round in Vedantu.

The Covid-19 pandemic has left students across the country banking on online classes to complete their academic session and prepare for competitive exams. A survey released by Byju’s in August said nearly 75% of the parents surveyed want their children to continue learning through online channels even after schools reopen.

“Learning from the best experts to achieve a life goal has mostly been a privilege, available only to those living in the top few cities of the country. At Unacademy, we are breaking that barrier and helping people achieve their life’s most important goals, by giving them access to the best coaching from experts in the field,” co-founder & CEO Gaurav Munjal said.

In a recent interview to local media, Munjal said the company’s internal goal for the next three years is to grow ten times from where it is at present. The firm that has a network of over 18,000 educators caters to the learning needs for more than 35 competitive exams. All documents related to the investment have been signed and the final closing is expected in the next few weeks, Unacademy said in a statement. The company that claims to have more than 350,000 subscribers will deploy the funds to launch new products, expanding beyond the test preparation segment.