Gaurav Munjal steps down as Unacademy CEO after a decade; Akhilendra Kumar takes over, two months after the $200 million upGrad sale
The co-founder becomes executive chairman of the edtech he started as a YouTube channel in 2015, once valued at $3.4 billion.
- Peak valuation: ~$3.4 billion (2021)
- Sold to upGrad: just over $200 million
- Planned new fund: ₹700 crore
What happened
Gaurav Munjal announced on social media that he is moving from chief executive to executive chairman of Unacademy. He said he will stay actively involved in day-to-day work and will help with the IPO plans of upGrad, which now owns the company.
Chief business officer Akhilendra Kumar becomes the new CEO. He has spent nearly five years at Unacademy and worked at OYO before that.
How we got here
upGrad completed an all-stock acquisition of Unacademy in September for a little over $200 million. That was a steep fall from the roughly $3.4 billion valuation the company reached in 2021, at the height of the online-learning boom. At the time of the deal, Unacademy had revenue of around ₹400 crore and about ₹900 crore in cash. With Munjal's move, all four co-founders have now stepped back from running it; Sumit Jain stepped down as CEO in May.
What's next for Munjal
Munjal and co-founder Roman Saini are reportedly raising a ₹700 crore fund called Longshot Capital to back AI and deeptech startups. Munjal started Unacademy as a YouTube channel in 2015, and it became a unicorn in 2020. His exit as CEO closes one of the most-watched founder journeys of India's edtech era.
