Facebook, General Atlantic among others invest $110M in edtech startup Unacademy

Bengaluru-based education technology start-up Unacademy on Wednesday announced that it has raised $110 million (roughly Rs. 788.48 crores) from new investors Facebook and General Atlantic, besides Sequoia India, Nexus Venture Partners, Steadview Capital and Blume Ventures.

'Our goal is to democratise education'

"We thank General Atlantic and Facebook who have joined us in this journey and our existing investors who continue to be a part of the journey by supporting us. Our goal is to democratise education and become not just the largest educational organisation but the largest consumer Internet story out of India," Gaurav Munjal, Co-Founder and CEO, Unacademy, said in a statement.

"Facebook is an ally for India's economic growth and social development, and we are excited about India and it's rapidly rising Internet ecosystem," said Ajit Mohan, Vice President and Managing Director, Facebook India.

"With this investment in Unacademy, we are reinforcing our commitment to the Indian startup ecosystem as well as investing in a company that is transforming learning in India. We love that the company is fundamentally democratising education and driving innovation in new learning models," Mohan said.

'We have 90,000 active paid subscribers'

The edtech startup said that it would utilise the funding to further penetrate into the test preparation categories, launching more exam categories, acquiring top educators, and creating exceptional learning experiences for the learners through great content and product.

The company offers test series, personalised feedback and one-on-one interactions with educators for various competitive examinations, including UPSC. "Right now, we have 90,000 active paid subscribers. My goal is to take this to a million in the next two years. That would make our revenue 10 times from here," Gaurav Munjal, CEO and Co-Founder, Unacademy told PTI

"We are looking to USD 250-300 million ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) and for that we need capital, we need teachers and so on," added Munjal. Currently, it has more than 20,000 registered educators and over 18 million learners. As on February 1, Unacademy Plus had hit USD 30 million ARR.

Generally, ARR refers to the yearly value of a single subscription. Munjal said the company is planning to offer online coaching for state service examinations in Kerala, Maharashtra, West Bengal and other states.

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Unacademy was started in 2015 as a platform for educators and learners with educators creating educational videos and offering Live interactive classes with access to more than 30 exam categories for the learners. It now has more than 1 million videos on its platform. 

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In 2019, Unacademy launched its subscription for various examinations which gives access to the learners throughout the country to top educators and structured learning. Within a span of one year, Unacademy has more than 90,000 active subscribers with 70% of its subscribers coming from tier-2 and tier-3 cities. More than 700 educators take classes on Unacademy every day, the company said.

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(With agency inputs) (Image credits: Unacademy)