Nearly four months after he stepped back from operational roles, Unacademy co-founder Gaurav Munjal on September 24 announced Sumit Jain as the CEO of the edtech unicorn’s test prep business, formalising a key piece of leadership transition.
“I have known Sumit for 12 years when he was CEO of CommonFloor and acquired my first company Flatchat. Sumit joined us as co-founder in 2020 and has been instrumental in improving the unit economics of our Test Prep business and more importantly the learner experience,” Munjal said in a post on X.
What was the succession plan?
The move is part of a roadmap, reported by Moneycontrol in May, when Munjal and fellow co-founder Roman Saini began preparing to exit day-to-day responsibilities.
At the time, sources had said Jain, who founded creator platform Graphy (acquired by Unacademy in 2020), would take over the offline business, while a new leadership team was being finalised for online operations.
The appointment shows those plans converging, with Jain formally in charge of the company’s largest business vertical responsible for online as well as offline examination preparation.
Why test prep still matters
Unacademy, valued at $3.4 billion at its peak, built its brand on competitive exam prep — from UPSC and IIT-JEE to NEET and CAT — and has since expanded into offline learning through Unacademy Centres in cities such as Kota and Delhi.
Test prep remains its revenue engine even as newer bets like Airlearn, the language learning app, gain traction.
What happens to Airlearn?
Moneycontrol reported in May that Munjal and Saini were in advanced talks with the board and investors to spin off Airlearn as a separate company.
At the time, Airlearn had crossed 70,000 daily active users and $2 million in annual recurring revenue, with most learners in the US and the UK.
Munjal had also offered existing Unacademy investors the right to participate in the spin-off.
Financials tighten as focus shifts
In FY24, Unacademy’s revenue fell 7.4 percent year-on-year to Rs 839 crore, though net losses narrowed 62.4 percent to Rs 631 crore. The company has slashed annual cash burn from over Rs 1,000 crore three years ago to under Rs 200 crore in FY25 and holds Rs 1,250 crore in reserves.
With Jain at the helm of test prep and Munjal steering Airlearn, Unacademy’s succession roadmap is now taking shape, marking a generational shift in leadership as the company doubles down on unit economics and sharper business focus.
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