Unacademy, India’s largest online education and practice platform, has announced that it has raised $60 million in a funding round led by Tiger Global. This new funding will further expand Unacademy’s product and engineering team to build out their educational content and services suite.
Unacademy plans to focus on scaling its learning platform, launching English-language products for the Indian market and positioning itself for the international market.
This funding round follows a promising year for Unacademy, which saw its user base grow from 4 million users in June 2020 to 20 million as of February 2021. With this funding injection, Unacademy plans to expand its portfolio of offerings by:
- Doubling down on providing quality educational content.
- Leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) technology to personalise learning recommendations and optimise outcomes.
- Scaling the company’s regional student support resources.
- Partnerships with educators across geographies.
- Productizing the individualised learning recommendation engine through the use of cutting-edge AI technology.
Tiger Global leads $60M
Unacademy is a leading online platform for educational content and services in India. Founded in 2015, the company has rapidly grown to become one of India’s largest online education companies with more than 15 million students enrolled. In addition, Unacademy recently raised $60 million from Tiger Global, a leading global venture capital firm, to expand its offering of online education programs.
This article will discuss the background of Unacademy and its impressive growth.
Founded in 2015
Unacademy is a leading online learning platform founded by Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini, Hemesh Singh and Sachin Gupta in 2015. Their mission is to bring quality education to anyone, anywhere in India by providing quality educational videos and other resources for free. Unacademy’s founders bring many years of teaching experience and software engineering experience to the platform.
Since its inception, Unacademy has offered over 10 million educational videos covering K-12 school lessons and IAS preparation coaching. In addition, Unacademy offers support by providing detailed statistics of answering sessions on the platform and reviews from thousands of students to help prospective students pick the best courses that suit their needs. During this period, they also expanded their app development offerings, offering course packages such as Project Insights that offer video lessons tailored for project-based learning platforms.
In January 2020, Unacademy raised $60 million in a Series D funding round led by Tiger Global Management LLP and Dragoneer Investment Group that saw existing investor SoftBank join in on the investment as well as General Atlantic putting up funding for the first time. Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Ventures also backed this particular investment among others.
Mission and Vision
Unacademy’s mission is to democratise learning in India and to make quality education more accessible for millions of learners. They strive to empower every learner, irrespective of their location, with access to the best educators, resources and technology enabling them to reach their full potential and achieve their desired goals.
Unacademy’s vision is to be the go-to platform for learners across India, providing an extensive range of educational opportunities such as professional courses and exam preparation through a single window. With its holistic approach to learning, Unacademy seeks to bridge urban-rural divides by giving everyone access to quality educational resources at their fingertips. Furthermore, by using a data-driven approach that meets individual and community needs, Unacademy strives for excellence in offering meaningful learning experiences that are self-paced and cater to varied learning preferences.
Tiger Global’s Investment
Tiger Global, an American venture capital firm, recently led a $60 million investment in Unacademy, India’s largest online education platform.
This move is expected to help Unacademy expand into new educational sectors and strengthen its online presence. The investment round, which Tiger Global led, includes participation from existing investors, such as Sequoia India, and new investors, such as General Atlantic.
Let’s take a closer look at how this investment will benefit Unacademy:
Amount invested
Unacademy, an Indian edtech startup catering to K-12 and college students, raised $60 million in its series E round of funding. Existing investor Tiger Global led the round, joined by Dragoneer Investment Group and General Atlantic. The startup will use the funds to further develop its online education platform, expand its presence across India, launch more products, and explore new opportunities in technology-enabled education.
Tiger Global invested $50 million in Unacademy as part of a series D round in January 2020. This strategic round further cements Tiger Global’s strong commitment to Unacademy as one of their key investments. Unacademy had raised $430 million over seven rounds from investors such as Sequoia India, Blume Ventures and General Atlantic. This news comes after the company proactively responded to the pandemic’s impact on learning by introducing products such as Live Classes and Subscribed at reduced prices that helped many students access quality education while studying from home.
Why Tiger Global chose to invest in Unacademy
Tiger Global Management has recently invested $60 million in Unacademy, India’s largest online education platform. Founded in 2010, Unacademy offers free and paid courses to learners ranging from K-12 to medical preparation and technology upskilling. The platform has more than 5 million monthly active users who utilise the resources for various subjects across different levels, industries and languages.
Through its investment, Tiger Global intends to deepen Unacademy’s capabilities across learning experiences, user engagement and content. This will enable the company to expand its offerings with curriculum optimization and turnaround time on course launches. It will also help the company to strengthen its cutting-edge technologies like Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Additionally, it will streamline hiring processes through improved employee engagement mechanisms.
The wide range of learners that use Unacademy makes it highly attractive to Tiger Global which is known for investing in companies with high growth potentials. Furthermore, since the edtech sector is still emerging in India, there are immense opportunities for scalability as well as establishing a foothold in the Indian market by creating innovative products and services tailored towards different geographies as well as niches within the education domain. Furthermore, awarding scholarships through tie-ups with universities helps create trust and further validates Unacademy’s credentials as an authoritative resource for learning. All of these factors made Tiger Global decide on investing into Unacademy which can quickly become the leader in India’s edtech industry if properly managed.
Unacademy’s Plans for Expansion
Unacademy, India’s leading online education platform, recently announced that it has raised $60M in a funding round led by Tiger Global. This funding will be used to further Academy’s mission of providing quality education to learners around the world.
Unacademy’s plans for expansion include reaching out to more potential learners and expanding its content library and features. Let’s take a look at some of how Unacademy plans to expand its reach and offerings:
Plans for leveraging the funds
After Unacademy raised $60M from Tiger Global in a fresh funding round, the company plans to leverage these funds to further expand its operations to provide educational offerings that are effective and accessible.
This latest funding round takes the total external funding of Unacademy to over $110M, showing a steady backdrop for its growth ambitions.
With the fresh injection of funds, Unacademy will be focusing on avenues towards further aiding learners across India by upgrading its offering in terms of content as well as its technological capabilities. Through these improved offerings and enhanced technological capabilities, Unacademy hopes to reach out and expand into new regions in India and abroad, providing quality education to learners everywhere.
With this capital, Unacademy is particularly focusing on:
- Strengthening their team
- Expanding their core engineering infrastructure
- Developing enhanced applications that promise an improved user experience through better categorising users’ needs and a more intuitive interface.
- Equipping students with specialised study plans tailored according to their goals and progress evaluations along the way – all things that would go far in enhancing accessibility and effectiveness of education for all learners across different parts of India.
Expansion of online education offerings
With the mission of bringing online education to millions of Indian students, Unacademy has raised $60 million from Tiger Global and is planning to expand its online learning offerings. Unacademy will use the recently acquired funds to strengthen its technology-enabled solutions such as course material, instructor-led live sessions, virtual labs and proctored exams.
Unacademy’s vision is to increase access and availability of quality education in India through technology-enabled solutions. The company plans to increase its reach further by expanding its portfolio of courses across school board exams (CBSE, ICSE etc.), admission entrance exams (JEE, NEET etc.) and competitive entrance exams (CAT, GRE etc.) It will introduce features like video content in multiple languages and an interactive library for each student using AI algorithms.
Unacademy also aims to empower teachers by enabling them with comprehensive tools and benefits such as eLearning fellowships for instructors who help create content for surveys by students. Additionally, the company plans to invest heavily in Research & Development (R&D) to continue delivering the best possible educational experience at scale.
Impact of Unacademy’s Expansion
Unacademy was recently able to secure $60M from Tiger Global to expand its online education offerings. This funding infusion has the potential to make a big impact on how people are learning, especially in India.
In this article, we’ll explore the implications of Unacademy’s expansion, and how it will likely shape the future of online education.
Positive impact on the online education industry
Unacademy’s continued expansion stands to have a major positive impact on the online education industry. From launching new study streams and partnerships with established educational institutions to providing students with increased options for affordable and accessible learning, Unacademy has positioned itself as a leader in the space.
The $60 million investment from Tiger Global signals that Unacademy is taking the necessary steps to become an even bigger force for online education. This substantial capital infusion will enable Unacademy to:
- Introduce new learning tools
- Deepen its range of content offerings
- Further develop a comprehensive platform that caters to both learners and educators alike
- Extend its global reach to become a premier destination for higher education
In addition, Unacademy’s rapid growth has strengthened the digital trend towards remote learning platforms as more students seek out virtual education solutions due to COVID-19. The new funding also signals greater acceptance of edtech platforms at all levels, thus creating a more favourable environment for digital-first education providers such as Unacademy who are challenging traditional models and advancing the cause of expanding access and quality of higher education.
Impact on the education system in India
Unacademy’s recent funding round of $60 million from Tiger Global will have a major impact on the education system in India. The company aims to use the money to expand their online education offerings, resulting in increased access to quality educational content for students across the country.
The investment will also likely promote competition in online learning, creating a better user experience and more value for consumers. In addition, Unacademy’s personalised approach to education, with its proprietary AI-driven technology that makes learning more efficient and effective, is expected to revolutionise India’s outdated education system.
Furthermore, Unacademy’s expansion plans could benefit local educators by providing mentoring and tutoring opportunities for aspiring teachers in India. This could increase job opportunities and provide rural educators with access to a global community of teachers who could help them with their professional development.
Finally, Unacademy’s presence may encourage foreign investors looking for opportunities in the digital education sector in India. With this additional capital injection into Indian new media companies, more innovative digital products are expected to arrive on the market, allowing students from any part of the world to attain academic success.
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