upGrad completes all-stock acquisition of Unacademy Group in $200 million deal

In a major consolidation within India’s edtech sector, higher education platform upGrad has officially completed its acquisition of Unacademy Group in an all-stock transaction on Tuesday, September 1.

The deal, which was initiated via a term sheet in March 2026 and received clearance from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in July, values Unacademy Group at just over $200 million. Under the terms of the transaction, Unacademy shareholders receive equity in upGrad.

The acquisition brings Unacademy’s full suite of operating entities, including competitive exam preparation, PrepLadder, creator monetisation platform Graphy, and language-learning app Airlearn, under the upGrad umbrella.

Gaurav Munjal will continue as CEO of Unacademy and will lead the Unacademy Group of businesses within upGrad.

A ₹900 crore cash cushion and profitability push

The deal brings significant cash reserves to upGrad’s consolidated balance sheet. At the time of closing, Unacademy Group reported a topline of approximately ₹400 crore, supported by around ₹900 crore in cash on its balance sheet. The group noted that most of its business lines are currently profitable or approaching profitability.

The combined entity merges upGrad’s higher education, study-abroad, and enterprise upskilling portfolio with Unacademy’s test-prep and consumer-facing verticals. Outside its core test-prep base, Unacademy’s language-learning app Airlearn has scaled to 10 million learners across 150 countries over the last two years, while free educator content across its channels has surpassed 10 billion YouTube views.

"We had ₹900 crore in the bank and every option to keep going alone," said Gaurav Munjal, Co-founder and CEO of Unacademy Group. "We chose this instead because building it with Ronnie, together with upGrad, is the more ambitious path, not the safer one."

Full-stack EdTech consolidation

The move marks one of the largest structural integrations in Asian edtech, spanning K-12 competitive exams through postgraduate education and corporate workforce development.

"With upGrad and Unacademy coming together, we will now reach learners at every stage, from their first competitive exam to the last skill they pick up at work," said Ronnie Screwvala, Co-founder and Chairperson of upGrad.

The company confirmed that all Unacademy Group products, existing subscriptions, course batches, and educator contracts will continue to operate without disruption. Unacademy employees and business teams will transition over to upGrad alongside their respective operating units.

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