The startup economy is booming in India. With a flurry of investments from venture capitalists and HNIs, startups have enough resources at their disposal to fund their ideas and innovate to their heart’s content. On one hand, where some startups have focussed their efforts on coming up with new ideas to revolutionize the market, some have taken a slightly different approach. Startups like Unacademy have been on a shopping spree for new ideas and ventures for a few years now. The Unacademy profile is loaded with ed-tech, training, and education-based platforms and startups that it has acquired over the years. The Unacademy subsidiary list stands at 12 as of now.
But an important question persists as the current situation unfolds.
How is Unacadmey able to afford all these acquisitions despite being a loss-making startup?
The answer is incessant Unacademy Funding. Unacademy has raised a total of $838.5 million through 12 rounds of funding. Some of the Unacademy investors are Softbank Vision Fund and Tiger Global Management. Unacademy is the market leader in the Indian ed-tech segment and the Unacademy competitors are small. Byju’s is the only significant competitor in the industry.
Unacademy has been the apple of the eye of inventors and non-investors alike. Its rapid growth and aggressive acquisition strategies have raised some interesting questions about the brand.
Who is the parent company of Unacademy? (Sorting Hat Technologies Private Limited)
Who is the founder of Unacademy? (Roman Saini, Gaurav Munjal, and Hemesh Singh)
If you still have some more questions regarding Unacademy as a startup, you can read our detailed extract on Unacademy Business Model
And most importantly…
What are the companies owned by Unacademy? (Unacademy subsidiary)
We are here today to primarily focus on this question. So let’s see what are the brands or ventures that Unacademy has acquired so far.
1. Spayee (Now Graphy)
Spayee was founded in 2014 by a group of educators and tech-enthusiasts Sandeep Singh, Gourav Kakkar, Aniruddha Singh, and Vijay Singh. The platform allows creators and educators to produce customized learning experiences for their students using audio files, videos, assignments, quizzes, and PDF documents. Spayee also allows educators to build personalized websites and apps for Android and IOS. The platforms recently crossed the benchmark of 2000+ educators and grabbed the attention of major ed-tech companies in the country. The venture was recently acquired by Unacademy in October 2021.
2. Swiflearn
Swiflearn is an early startup founded in 2019 by Abhinav Agarwal and Anand Bakode. It is an online ed-tech platform that offers live face-to-face classes to students up to class 10th. The goal of the platform is to provide personalized home tuition to students at an affordable price. The platform offers tuition across three subjects Mathematics, English, and Science. It is one of the newest addition to the Unacademy subsidiary portfolio and is in line with the strategy of Unacademy to get into the K-12 education market. This venture was acquired by Unacademy in November 2021.
3. Rheo TV
Rheo TV was founded in August 2019 by Saksham Kehsri and Prashant Kumar. Rheo TV is an online game streaming platform that allows users to monetize their gameplay by live-steaming and posting clips in their feed. The platform was extremely successful and acquired more than 5 million users and 10,000 streamers in less than 2 years. Unacademy announced the full acquisition of the live streaming platform in July 2021 and allowed the exit of all existing investors in the platform to avoid conflict of interest. This acquisition is done by Unacadmey to get into the rapidly growing gaming sector in India and diversify the Unacademy subsidiary portfolio.
4. WiFiStudy
WiFiStudy is a Jaipur-based startup founded by Dinesh Godara in 2013. The platform offers video tutorials, mock tests, sectional mocks, and PYQs for exams ranging from group D to high-level Public sector exams like SSC, banking, railway, and state police. During the time of acquisition in August 2018, WiFiStudy had more than 4.5 million registered users and close to 70 million views on its youtube channel. The acquisition was in accordance with the plans to strengthen Unacademy’s grip in the public sector exam preparation market and they successfully integrated WiFiStudy into its Unacadmy subsidiary portfolio with a stock and cash deal.
5. Kreatryx
Kreatryx was founded by Ankit Goyal in 2014. The platform offers online classes for GATE, SSC, ESE, CIL, and Vizag Steel. The aim of the platform is to bridge the gap between a student’s performance and capabilities by offering a level playing field and an innovative learning experience for all users. Kreatryx retained the autonomy to work as an individual brand is run and managed by the founder. The venture was acquired by Unacademy in March 2020 and is one of the most talked about Unacademy acquisitions so far.
6. Coursavy
Coursavy was founded in 2019 by Vimal Singh Rathod to facilitate UPSC test preparation by making high-quality and affordable preparation resources available to UPSC aspirants online. It offers doubt resolutions, core content classes, mentorship, study notes, evaluation, and feedback. At the time of acquisition in September 2020, Coursavy had more than 70,000 registered users and a strong presence on youtube. Unacademy revealed in a statement that this acquisition will further strengthen its position of Unacademy in the UPSC test preparation market.
7. CodeChef
CodeChef is a Mumbai-based non-profit entity founded by Bhavin Turakhia in 2009. CodeChef is an online code and algorithm learning platform that allows users to learn through interesting coding problems and competitions. The Users have rewarded points for every problem they solve and every competition they win. At the time of acquisition in June 2020, CodeChef had 10 million registered users. The acquisition was done in order to acquire a coding infrastructure to provide code training to students from call 11th and 12th. It is one of the most important additions to the Unacademy Subsidiary list.
8. PrepLadder
PrepLadder is a Chandigarh-based startup founded in 2016 by Deepanshu Goyal, Vitul Goyal, and Sahil Goyal that specializes in post-graduate medical examination prep. PrepLadder is a bootstrapped startup that had amassed more than 70,000 users at the time of acquisition in July 2020. The aim of the platform is to make post-graduate medical exam prep easier and more accessible by offering quality content and preparation resources online at an affordable price. The PrepLadder acquisition is in line with the goal of Unacademy to become the biggest ed-tech company in the world.
9. NeoStencil
NeoStencial is a test preparation platform that founded by Kush Beejal and Love Beejal in 2014. The platform uses technology to provide easy access to quality education across the country. Prior to its acquisition, the platform had already garnered the support of 1.1 million students and more than 500 institutions using their platform to reach students through live classes. The platform majorly focuses on government job preparation and tests. NeoStencil retained its autonomy after the acquisition in December 2020, with the CEO and founder Kush Beejal at the helm of operations.
10. TapChief
TapCheif is a Banglore-based startup founded by Shashank Murali, Binay Krishna, and Arjun Krishna in 2016. The platform allows working-class professionals and graduates to interact and learn from industry experts, build a strong network, and polish their personal brand by acquiring small-term projects. Tapcheif has more than 1,50,000 registered users actively networking their way to quality projects and building their portfolios. This Unacademy acquisition is in line with the objective of building Unacadmey pro, an upskilling platform for working professionals to help them land their dream jobs. Unacademy acquired TapCheif in February 2021.
11. Handa Ka Funda
Handa Ka Funda is an online test preparation platform that focuses on CAT and other MBA exam preparations. It was founded by Ravi Handa in 2012 and more than 20,000 students have enrolled in Handa’s courses. Ravi Handa is one of the top educators for CAT and MBA preparation and the acquisition was made to acquire Ravi Handa as an educator at Unacademy. This Unacademy acquisition is one of the most recent addition to the Unacademy acquisition spree as Unacadmey concluded the acquisition in March 2021.
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