According to an exclusive report published by Inc42 last week, Unacademy is undergoing a significant restructuring. The edtech giant’s chief operating officer (COO) for offline centers, Jagnoor Singh, is also leaving the company. Jagnoor Singh will serve a six-month notice period before transitioning out. Besides this, Unacademy is unlikely to hire a direct replacement. Instead, cofounder Gaurav Munjal, along with Sumit Jain, who was recently elevated to cofounder position, will oversee the offline business.
“The founders are taking control of the business to attain the company’s goals. The company intends to go public and the business needs to be run more efficiently. Afterall, Unacademy intends to have a sustainable growth and achieve profitability,” one of the sources revealed to Inc42
Jagnoor Singh reported directly to either Gaurav Munjal or Sumit Jain during his tenure at Unacademy. His departure comes one month after Unacademy’s cofounder and CTO Hemesh Singh announced his decision to step back from his executive role to advisory role after serving an eight-year tenure.
It is worth noting that Sumit Jain, Unacademy’s partner, has taken over as cofounder, replacing Hemesh Singh, and has also secured a seat on the startup’s board. Previously, Jain, who was the CEO of Graphy, was elevated to partner in 2022. At the time, Gaurav Munjal noted that the roles of cofounder and partner are essentially equivalent.
In 2015, Hemesh Singh, Gaurav Munjal, and Roman Saini co-founded Unacademy, which has since grown to boast a network of 91,000 registered educators and over 99 million learners. As part of its efforts to achieve profitability, the Bengaluru-based startup is currently undergoing a significant cost-cutting drive. Earlier this month, Unacademy laid off 250 employees as part of a restructuring exercise, with 150 of those employees coming from the sales department, where they failed to meet sales targets, and the remaining 100 from various other departments, sources shared with Inc42 then.
In May, PrepLadder, Unacademy’s medical entrance test preparation platform, underwent a significant restructuring, resulting in the layoff of approximately 145 employees, representing nearly 25% of its workforce. This marked PrepLadder’s third major downsizing in the past three years, coinciding with a strategic shift in its sales approach. Additionally, Unacademy has been engaged in preliminary discussions with K-12 Techno Services regarding a potential acquisition, although the talks are still in their early stages.
The edtech giant that counts Tamasek, Dragoneer, Tiger Global, Softbank, General Atlantic, Meta, Peak XV Partners, and the cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar among its top investors, significantly reduced its consolidated net loss by 40% to INR 1,678.1 Cr in FY23, compared to INR 2,847.9 Cr the previous year, achieving this through substantial cost-cutting measures. To date, Unacademy Group has secured approximately $800 Mn in funding, with a current valuation of $3 Bn. The startup’s notable investors include Tiger Global, Elevation Capital, General Atlantic, and Meta, demonstrating its strong financial backing.
