Unacademy

Unacademy is an Indian online education technology company based in Bangalore. It was originally created as a YouTube channel in 2010 by Gaurav Munjal.[1] As a company, it was founded by Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini, and Hemesh Singh in 2015, and is headquartered in Bangalore.[2][3][4] The company has a network of over 18,000 educators, and offers preparation material for several professional and educational entrance exams. Unacademy lessons are in the form of Live Classes both free and via subscription.[5][6]

Unacademy
Industry
Founded2015 (2015)
FounderGaurav Munjal, Roman Saini
Headquarters
Bangalore, India
ProductsUnacademy App, Website
SubsidiariesWifistudy, Prepladder, Kreatryx
Websitewww.unacademy.com

History

In 2010, Unacademy started as a YouTube channel by Gaurav Munjal. In 2015 Unacademy was officially registered as an education company in Bangalore. Unacademy Subscription (previously known as Unacademy Plus) is a paid learning service provided by Unacademy. The company currently provides preparation study material for students aspiring for civil services, bank jobs and other competitive exams in India.[7] A privately held company, Unacademy has secured funding through a series of offerings,[8][9] including investments from US private equity firm General Atlantic, social networking giant Facebook, Nexus Ventures, Blume Ventures, and Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy.[10] As of July 2020, Unacademy was valued at 1.45 billion US dollars.[11]

Acquisitions

In 2018, Unacademy acquired Wifistudy for $10 million. Wifistudy is a YouTube-based online exam preparation and learning platform founded in 2013 by Dinesh Godara. Wifistudy focuses on preparation for competitive public-sector exams such as SSC, banking, railway, and state police.[12][13]

Kreatryx, founded in 2014 by Ankit Goyal, was acquired by Unacademy in early 2020 to expand GATE and ESE preparation services.[14]

Unacademy acquired Mumbai-based online competitive programming platform CodeChef in June 2020.[15]

Unacademy acquired Gurugram based NEET PG on-line coaching Prepladder for $50 million in July 2020.[16]

Unacademy acquired major stake in Mastree, a K12 learning platform, by investing $5 million in July 2020.[17]

Unacademy acquired UPSC test prep platform Coursavy in Sept 2020.[18]

In December 2020, Unacademy acquired Delhi NCR-based test prep startup Neostancil.[19]

Unacademy Plus Subscription and Revenue Model

The Unacademy revenue model works on a goal-based subscription model for which subscriptions are required with variable pricing. Most goals now also have an Iconic subscription which is an advanced subscription. Discounts are in the form of referral codes, which are limited up to a 10% discount on entering a referral code.

Guest Lecturers

Several noteworthy personalities and public figures have taught learners through live classes under the Unacademy's educational programmes[20] UPSC Summit.

Controversies

Data Breach

In May 2020, Unacademy's security came into question with a 'For Sale' ad on the Dark Web, which promised to sell 22 Million Unacademy accounts' sensitive information for $2000. The data dump (as obtained and claimed by few researchers) included Names, Usernames, Email Ids, Passwords, and other account details. Unacademy authorities later confirmed that almost 11 Million accounts got compromised, but nothing valuable got leaked or misused. Unacademy claimed that no sensitive information has been compromised in their official statement on the matter.[28][29]

See also

References
  1. "Unacademy: A New (digital Education) Academy". Forbes India. Retrieved 2020-04-12.
  2. "Unacademy to conduct free full-length UPSC CSE Prelims – General Studies Paper Mock Tests for 2020 UPSC aspirants - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2020-04-12.
  3. World, Republic. "Unacademy provides a platform for seamless education amidst Corona Fear". Republic World. Retrieved 2020-04-12.
  4. "24-Year-Old Roman Saini Quits IAS To Turn Into A E-Tutor". Huffington Post.
  5. Shrivastava, Apurwa (2019-09-05). "Making Quality Education Affordable And Accessible, These Front Runners Are Transforming The Learning Ecosystem Through Innovative Solutions". thelogicalindian.com. Retrieved 2020-06-15.
  6. Vankipuram, Meera (2020-02-24). "Unacademy, Byju's success lifts fortunes of edtech start-ups". Livemint. Retrieved 2020-05-09.
  7. Ganguly, Anindita (2018-02-25). "Decoding the Rise and Rise of Unacademy". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 2020-05-09.
  8. www.ETtech.com. "Unacademy secures $11.5M funding led by Sequoia India & SAIF Partners - ETtech". ETtech.com. Retrieved 2020-04-12.
  9. "Online learning platform Unacademy gets $21M Series C from Sequoia India, SAIF and Nexus". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-04-12.
  10. "Unacademy raises $110 million led by Facebook, General Atlantic". The Week. Retrieved 2020-04-12.[self-published]
  11. Mittal, Aarzoo (2020-07-14). "Unacademy acquires majority stake in Mastree at over Rs 100 Cr valuation". Entrackr. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
  12. Patwa, Prasannata (2018-10-26). "Unacademy acquires exams preparation start-up WiFiStudy". Livemint. Retrieved 2020-04-12.
  13. Bansal, Varsha (2018-10-26). "Unacademy acquires test prep platform Wifistudy". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2020-04-12.
  14. Vankipuram, Meera (2020-03-31). "Unacademy acquires GATE, ESE prep platform Kreatryx". Livemint. Retrieved 2020-04-12.
  15. "A new home for CodeChef!". CodeChef. 2020-06-18. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  16. www.ETtech.com. "Unacademy acquires medical entrance preparation platform PrepLadder for $50 million - ETtech". ETtech.com. Retrieved 2020-08-25.
  17. Mathur, Nandita (2020-07-14). "Unacademy leads a strategic investment of $5 mn in Mastree". Livemint. Retrieved 2020-08-26.
  18. "Unacademy acquires test preparation startup Coursavy". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
  19. "Unacademy Makes Its Sixth Acquisition Of 2020 With Test Prep Startup NeoStencil". Inc42 Media. 2021-01-01. Retrieved 2021-01-19.
  20. "Shashi Tharoor, Kiran Bedi, Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma are teaching live classes on this website! - Education Today News". India Today. 2020-04-17. Retrieved 2020-12-28.
  21. "Pranab to inaugurate Unacademy, The Hindu summit for civil service aspirants". The Hindu. Special Correspondent. 2020-06-22. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2020-08-06.CS1 maint: others (link)
  22. Tewari, Saumya (2020-04-22). "Virat Kohli, Anushka Sharma motivate students via Unacademy amid lockdown". Livemint. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  23. "Twitter - Shashi Tharoor". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-06-19.[self-published]
  24. "Twitter - Kiran Bedi". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-06-19.[self-published]
  25. Service, Tribune News. "Boxing is not a sport just for men: Mary Kom tells students". Tribuneindia News Service. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  26. "Sourav Ganguly conducts Live class on Unacademy". afaqs!. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  27. "Viswanathan Anand (vishy.anand18-432)". Unacademy. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
  28. "Unacademy Hacked: 22M User Data Leaked | Details on Data Dump". Hack Reports. 2020-05-07. Retrieved 2020-05-18.
  29. Ahaskar, Abhijit (2020-05-06). "Millions of Unacademy user accounts exposed in data breach: Report". Livemint. Retrieved 2020-06-15.
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