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UpGrad said to be in talks to buy Unacademy at a fraction of its last valuation
An UpGrad-Unacademy deal would peg Unacademy's valuation at $300-400 million as against its last-known valuation of $3.44 billion in 2021.
UpGrad, promoted by film producer-turned-entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala, is said to be in talks to acquire rival Unacademy at a fraction of its last-known valuation. The deal would mark be one of the biggest consolidation moves in India's edtech space.
A term-sheet for the UpGrad-Unacademy deal could be signed in three weeks, Moneycontrol reported citing people familiar with the matter. As part of the deal, Unacademy's language-learning app AirLearn would be spun off into a separate entity, while the core test-prep business — including offline centres — will be acquired by UpGrad.
The transaction would peg Unacademy's valuation at $300-400 million (about ₹2,800-3,500 crore), as against its last-known valuation of $3.44 billion (~ ₹30,500 crore) in 2021.
The reported talks of an UpGrad-Unacademy deal comes when India's edtech ecosystem is undergoing yet another round of churn.
After a post-pandemic lull, fundraising activity in India's $7.5-billion edtech market picked up in the first half of 2025 — 11 deals worth $120 million were struck between Janaury and June. That includes funding rounds in Physics Wallah Ltd. ($210 million), Eruditus ($150 million) and Avance Financial Services ($120 million). Physics Wallah, in fact, has an IPO coming up next week at a valuation of $3.2 billion.
Separately, but at the same time, Ranjan Pai's Manipal Education & Medical Group has submitted an expression of interest to acquired Think & Learn Pvt. Ltd. — the bankrupt parent of Byju's, according to an ET report. The most valuable asset here is Byju's stake in Aakash Educational Services where Manipal already has a 58% stake.
The Manipal-Byju's deal as well as the UpGrad-Unacademy deal reflects the final phase of consolidation in India's edtech space, where assets of troubled unicorns are being acquired by financially healthier entities.
To be sure, there's also a marked shift towards a hybrid model for edtech — online as well as offline. Physics Wallah, for example, plans to use a large chunk of its IPO proceeds for settling up physical tuition centres at a time when 93% of its students are online.
That's because edtech firms now believe that physical presence is necessary for customer trust and unit economics in India.
