Unacademy valued at $3.4 billion in Temasek-led round; Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal, Ritesh Agarwal’s family office among investors

Unacademy founders Roman Saini, Gaurav Munjal and Hemesh Singh

Online learning firm Unacademy said on August 2 that it has raised $440 million led by sovereign wealth fund Temasek, valuing it at $ 3.4 billion -- a ten-fold jump in 18 months.

Existing backers SoftBank, General Atlantic and Tiger Global also participated in the round. Other new investors include OYO founder Ritesh Agarwal’s family office Aroa Ventures, Korean firm Mirae Asset and recently listed Zomato’s founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal.

Some early angel investors cashed out on their holdings too.

“With funding comes responsibility- to build and scale Iconic Products of the future that delight our customer; to constantly innovate and experiment; to create value for our shareholders; to not mis-sell in an industry which is known for its bad sales tactics,” co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal tweeted.

“There are three major products that we will build and scale (or continue scaling): Unacademy: helping people crack life-changing exams; Relevel: giving people a path to get their dream job irrespective of their educational background and; Graphy: empowering creators to build their online businesses to sell digital goods including NFTs,” he added.

Last week Unacademy also said it is introducing stock options for teachers on its platform, a first in the industry.

Founded by Munjal, Hemesh Singh and Roman Saini, Unacademy currently provides test preparation services for civil services exams, engineering and medical entrance exams among others. Via acquisitions it has also forayed into other education sub-segments, including tutoring classes for school kids.

Avendus Capital was the advisor to the deal