List of Startups Acquired by Unacademy

The founders of this Ed-tech start-up were Gaurav Munjal, Hemesh Singh, and Roman Saini. The Ed-tech giant’s name and logo have a simple philosophy. “Unacademy” means a virtual classroom that is not an academy but a counterpart of a traditional academic institution. Their motto was to provide a quality education through the internet so that everyone from everywhere can learn from them i.e. “remote education & learning.” It operates on a Freemium business model where you will get both free as well as paid subscription courses. Today, the market capitalization of Unacademy is $3.44 billion. It reached this height by acquiring various companies and startups. Later they were called “Unacademy Subsidiaries.” 

A Brief Overview 

Since 2019, Unacademy has expanded enormously by acquiring the following companies that have a similar vision to provide virtual learning services in India.

Details of Unacademy Subsidiaries

1: Wifistudy

The first target of Unacademy was “Wifistudy,” to fulfill the objective to venture deeper into the test preparation market. Wifistufy was a Jaipur-based YouTube educational channel.  Dinesh Godara founded this company in 2013 to provide government job preparation. It provided online classes for SSC, Banking, Railways, and State Police exams. Unacademy acquired Wifistudy in 2018. This deal was worth $10 million. At that time, their YouTube channel has 4.5 million subscribers with 70 million monthly video views. It significantly helped in building the roadmap of Unacademy.

2: PrepLadder

PrepLadder was an online platform, established in 2015; that provided test preparations for post-graduate medical entrance exams in India. Its founders were Deepanshu Goyal, Vittu Goyal, and Sahil Goyal. Unacademy wanted to build its presence in the medical entrance exams categories like NEET, NEET PG, and FMGE. Therefore, to fulfill this objective, Unacademy acquired PrepLadder in 2019. They finalized this deal for $50 million. Now, it provides exclusive educational content including HD videos, QBank, impeccable test series, etc.

3: CodeChef (Unacademy Educational Initiative)

As the name suggests, it is an online platform where you can learn new programming languages like Python, C, C++, or Java. It has ample video tutorials along with test series that helps you to become a skilled programmer in the comfort of your home. Founded in 2009 by Bhavin Turakhaia, CodeChef belonged to the parent company “Directi.” Later, in 2020, Unacademy acquired it to establish its presence in the computer programming world. Now, it conducts various training sessions on algorithms, codings, and problem-solving skills.

4: Mastree

Shrey goal and Royal Jain founded this start-up in 2019. This K-12 learning-based platform offers interactive live sessions and recorded videos for students in elementary grades (5^th to 8^th standard). The main focus of this online education platform is STEAM subjects i.e., Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. Other than these, they also conduct classes for public speaking, creative writing, Vedic literature, doubt-solving, personality development, live quizzes, etc. Recently, Mastree introduced a feature called “Graphy” where you can explore stories, ideas, quizzes, and books through audio, video, and images.

The prime objective of this startup was to increase the curiosity of the students by providing an interesting form of educational content. Unacademy saw it as a golden opportunity to explore the educational segment of kids. Therefore, it acquired Mastree in 2020 with a deal of $5 million. Thus, this is one of the crucial Unacademy subsidiaries.

5: Coursavy

Coachings and classes for UPSC preparation always trend on top spot in the Ed-tech sector of India. Vimal Singh Rathore utilized this fact and founded Coursavy in 2019 to provide an online platform for UPSC preparation. On this platform, the educators hosted live online classes and provided study notes, periodic tests, and doubt-resolving sessions to UPSC aspirants. The Youtube channel Coursavy had 70,000 learners. Seeing Coursavy as a successful startup, Unacademy acquired it in 2019. Thus, Unacademy successfully strengthens its position in the segment of the UPSC preparation platform.

6: NeoStencil

NeoStencil is a test preparation platform focused on government jobs and law exams. Kush Beejal founded it in 2015 for providing courses for entrance exams conducted by the government, and law institutions of India. With its outstanding quality of education, it gathered millions of students with more than 500 different types of courses. To expand its reach in the law segment, Unacademy acquired NeoSegment in 2020. Although they didn’t disclose the worth of the deal this acquisition helped Unacademy to expand its presence in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities of India.

7: Kreatryx

Kreatryx is also an Ed-tech startup focused on providing online courses for exam preparation. The target customers of this firm are GATE & ESE aspirants i.e., students having an Engineering background. Akash Porwal, Ankit Goyal, and Rohit Nitin Joshi founded this company in the year 2014. Their objective was to provide the best quality of educational content driven by technology. So that students can perform excellently with their true potential. Also, they created numerous Facebook groups where aspirants could directly interact with the toppers. This Ed-tech firm has more than 50k aspirants with watch hours over 100k hours. Seeing it as a flourishing start-up, Unacademy acquired it in 2020 with a cash-plus stock deal.

8: TapChief

TapChief was founded in 2016. Shashank Murali, Binay Krishna, and Arjun Krishna were the key founders of TapChief. It is an online professional networking and recruitment platform in Bengaluru. It provides a suite of solutions and an interactive platform where professionals can interact and learn from experts. Also, they can work with various successful businessmen across the world to aggregate personal brands online. Uncacademy acquired a majority stake in TapChief to focus on higher education and placements. Thereafter, it renamed its subsidiary “Unacademy Pro.” 

9: Handa Ka Funda

Ravi Handa founded the start-up “Handa Ka Funda” for providing online courses on CAT and MBA entrance exams. He was also a prominent educator in this field. He started his YouTube channel in 2012 and over 20,000 students enrolled in his courses. Unacademy acquired this startup in 2021 where students can subscribe to Unacademy’s plus courses too. Thus, the Ed-tech giant grabbed a remarkable position in the CAT and MBA entrance exams preparation.

10: RheoTV (Game-streaming Unacademy Subsidiaries)

Rheo TV is a game-streaming platform founded in 2019. It aids professional game streamers to monetize their gameplay and live streams. Also, the goal of this start-up was to promote the game-streams as a mainstream career option in our country. Within one year of the launch, there were over 5 million users and 10,000 live streamers on Rheo TV. Unacademy keenly observed the exponential surge in the gaming industry in the Indian subcontinent. Therefore, to keep itself on the top spot of the trend, Unacademy acquired Rheo TV in 2021 in an undisclosed deal. 

Note:-

Other than the above companies, Unacademy also acquired Spayee Labs Pvt. Ltd (later “Graphy Labs”), Recode, Swiftlearn, Rheo TV. These two IT consulting services provide education regarding coding. 

Final Words for Unacademy Subsidiaries

Unacademy acquired the above-mentioned start-ups. Its major objective is to expand its reach in various segments of the online education & test preparation sector of India. Those Unacademy subsidiaries aided to strengthen its position as the top-most Ed-tech company in India. Similar to Byju’s and Microsoft, these acquisitions helped Unacademy to spread its wings in the market.