Gaurav Munjal Steps Down as Unacademy CEO Two Months After a Roughly $200 Million upGrad Takeover
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Gaurav Munjal Steps Down as Unacademy CEO Two Months After a Roughly $200 Million upGrad Takeover
Chief business officer Akhilendra Kumar takes over. The deal price is about 6% of the $3.4 billion peak valuation Unacademy reached in 2021.
Gaurav Munjal, co-founder of the test-preparation company Unacademy, is moving from chief executive to executive chairman, and chief business officer Akhilendra Kumar becomes CEO, Entrackr reported on November 11. Munjal announced the change himself. Inc42 quotes his LinkedIn post: "I'm moving from CEO to executive chairman of Unacademy, and Akhilendra Kumar will take over as CEO."
The change comes about two months after upGrad completed its acquisition of Unacademy in September 2026 for just over $200 million, both outlets reported. Entrackr says the deal was all-stock.
The price against the peak
Unacademy's peak valuation was around $3.4 billion in 2021, Entrackr said. A price of just over $200 million is about 5.9% of that, a fall of roughly 94%. Entrackr did not report the investor list or the funding history, so the loss to each backer cannot be worked out from the article.
Because the consideration was shares, the $200 million figure depends on how upGrad's own stock was valued at closing. Neither report says what that valuation was.
| Item | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Deal price, September 2026 | Just over $200 million, all-stock | Entrackr, Inc42 |
| Peak valuation, 2021 | About $3.4 billion | Entrackr |
| Unacademy topline | About ₹400 crore | Munjal, via Entrackr |
| Cash in the bank | About ₹900 crore | Munjal, via Entrackr |
| upGrad FY26 gross revenue | ₹2,070 crore, up 7% | Entrackr |
What Unacademy brings upGrad
Munjal said at the time of the deal that Unacademy had a topline of around ₹400 crore, with most businesses profitable or near profitable, and about ₹900 crore in the bank, per Entrackr. Both are his figures, reported secondhand, and no filing was cited. If the cash is accurate, it is 2.25 times the topline.
upGrad gains an entry into online test preparation covering UPSC, JEE, NEET and GATE, plus Unacademy's educator network. After the deal, PrepLadder moved its headquarters from Chandigarh to Bengaluru, and Unacademy, PrepLadder, Airlearn and Graphy now operate from Bengaluru.
upGrad itself reported FY26 gross revenue of ₹2,070 crore, up 7% year on year and including taxes. Total income after Ind-AS accounting was ₹1,732 crore, with a provisional profit of ₹38.8 crore for the 11 months ended February 2026. Unacademy's ₹400 crore topline would be about 19% of upGrad's gross revenue, though the two figures are not on the same accounting basis.
Who is still involved
Munjal said he will stay in day-to-day operations, work with Kumar, and help with the upGrad IPO, per Entrackr. Kumar has been with the company for nearly five years.
Neither report covers layoffs, the terms of the Graphy acquisition, or whether the executive chairman role carries a board seat at upGrad. For a comparable Indian founder-era unwinding with its own loss figures, see ShareChat parent Mohalla Tech's ₹1,978 crore FY26 loss. For what a listing does to a startup's share count, see Agility Robotics' SPAC redemptions.
upGrad's IPO filing is the next document that would confirm Unacademy's contribution to its revenue. Neither report gave a date for it.
Sources
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