Unacademy co-founders Gaurav Munjal and Roman Saini are reportedly exiting within the next 2–3 months. They are in advanced discussions with the board and investors to spin off Airlearn, Unacademy’s language learning app, as a separate company.
Unacademy exits
Hemesh Singh, the third co-founder of the edtech startup Unacademy, had already exited in June last year.
As reported by The Economic Times, Sumit Jain, co-founder of Unacademy’s subsidiary Graphy, will assume the role of Chief Executive Officer of Unacademy.
He joined the company post the exit of Hemesh Singh, after his startup, Opentalk, was acquired by Unacademy in 2020.
Earlier, he founded a real estate platform, Commonflor, which was acquired by Quickr in 2016.
Munjal is said to have formally communicated his intent of leaving the company to the board in March this year.
"The board asked him to first reduce the company’s burn, so he stayed on till now," said a person aware of the discussions.
A succession plan has been drawn up, under which Sumit Jain (co-founder) will take over the offline business, while a new leadership team is being put in place for Unacademy’s online operations.
Munjal and Saini are both expected to leave Unacademy once the Airlearn spin-off structure is finalised.
The co-founder has proposed a structure to the board that would allow him to lead Airlearn independently. "There is over 90 per cent alignment on the matter, with some final negotiations remaining around equity and structure," a source familiar with the talks said.
Reportedly, Munjal has offered existing Unacademy investors the right to invest in the new venture, once the spin-off is executed.
The language learning app, Airlearn, meanwhile, is growing rapidly.
It has recorded 70,000 daily active users and nearly 3 lakh monthly users, with 17,500 paid subscribers and $2 million in annual recurring revenue, Munjal had said while sharing the company's update last month on social media.
The app, which competes with Duolingo, has a majority of its users from the United States and the UK, with Spanish and French being the most popular languages.
The edtech firm Unacademy’s revenue fell 7.4 per cent in FY24 to Rs 839 crore, with net losses narrowing significantly by 62.4 per cent to Rs 631 crore.
The edtech firm claims to have reduced its cash burn in the core business from over Rs 1,000 crore annually three years ago to under Rs 200 crore this FY25.
The company currently has Rs 1,250 crore in the bank and is in a “default alive” state, as shared by the co-founder earlier.
Also read: ‘India’s biggest brain drain isn’t to Silicon Valley, it’s to the scroll’: Anupam Mittal (startuppedia.in)
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