Munjal said more than 8 employees will earn more than ₹1 Cr from the buyback exercise, while 17 employees will earn more than ₹50 Lakh
This comes months after Unacademy faced backlash for reducing the ESOP exercise window from 10 years to 30 days
Notably, Unacademy was in talks with upGrad for an acquisition, However, the deal fell through due to differences in valuation
Months after Unacademy faced backlash for reducing the ESOP exercise windowthe edtech unicorn plans to buy back ESOPs worth ₹50 Cr.
Making the announcement on X, Unacademy Group CEO and cofounder Gaurav Munjal said, “Grateful to the board for carving out a cash pool for the employees even though the valuation is significantly less than our last fundraise,” he said.
He said more than 8 employees will earn more than ₹1 Cr from the buyback exercise. While 17 employees will earn more than ₹50 Lakh, 38 employees will bag around ₹10 Lakh.
Notably, Unacademy was in talks with upGrad for an acquisition, However, the deal fell through due to differences in valuation. Unacademy was looking for a valuation of $300 Mn to $400 Mn for the acquisition.
Prior to that, Unacademy was also in talks with K-12 Techno Services for an acquisition. However, it didn’t materialise.
Now, Unacademy is planning to exit its offline business by converting company operated centres into franchise partnerships. In an internal email last month, Munjal told employees that the franchise model would allow the startup to employ an asset-light, capital-efficient business. The transition is expected to be completed by April.
Founded in 2015 by Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini, and Hemesh Singh, Unacademy started as a YouTube channel before evolving into a prominent online learning platform. It offers test prep and upskilling courses across categories such as UPSC, IIT-JEE, NEET, and competitive exams.
However, the startup lost its sparkle in the post-pandemic era, like many other edtech startups, when offline centres began to reopen. Besides, Unacademy continues to post losses and is yet to report profit.
While it is yet to report FY25 numbers, the company managed to trim its standalone net loss by 82.09% to ₹285 Cr in FY24 from ₹1,592 Cr in the previous fiscal year. It also recorded a marginal dip in operating revenue to ₹716 Cr in FY24 from ₹733 Cr in the previous fiscal year.
As a result of these factors, Munjal, in December, said that the valuation of the startup, once valued at $3.5 Bn, possibly plummeted to below $500 Mn.
Notably, Unacademy has raised over $830 Mn in funding from investors like Peak XV Partners, Softbank, WaterBridge Ventures, Meta, among others.
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