Unacademy cut hundreds of roles as its founder stepped back

Unacademy, an Indian online-education startup backed by SoftBank, Peak XV and General Atlantic, became one of India's best-known edtech unicorns during the Covid-19 learning boom. The company hired rapidly across sales, marketing, content and technology to capture a surge in remote-learning demand.

When schools reopened and venture funding tightened, the hiring reversed into restructuring. In July 2024 Unacademy laid off about 250 employees, its third major round in roughly two years after earlier cuts affecting hundreds more. Co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal acknowledged the layoffs publicly, saying the moves were needed to streamline operations and reach sustainable growth.

The deeper signal came later: Munjal and co-founder Roman Saini stepped back from day-to-day operations to focus on AirLearn, a new language-learning venture, while fellow co-founder Sumit Jain took over as CEO. Reports of merger talks with Allen Career Institute at a valuation of about $800 million — down from a peak of $3.4 billion — underlined how far the company's value had fallen.