Unacademy cofounder and CEO Sumit Jain is set to step down from the edtech startup, with cofounder Gaurav Munjal taking charge as the company moves through a proposed acquisition by Ronnie Screwvala-led upGrad.
Jain’s last working day will be June 30. After that, he is expected to remain associated with Unacademy in an advisory role. The leadership change comes at a decisive moment for the company, which is awaiting Competition Commission of India approval for its merger with upGrad.
Jain had joined Unacademy as a cofounder in 2020 and was appointed CEO in 2025, when Munjal shifted more of his attention to Airlearn, Unacademy’s foreign language learning platform. His exit now brings Munjal back to the centre of Unacademy’s operations at a time when the company’s future is being reshaped through consolidation.
The proposed upGrad deal is an all-stock transaction and values Unacademy at ₹2,055 crore, or around $218 million. That marks a sharp fall from its peak valuation of $3.4 billion in 2021, reflecting the wider reset across India’s edtech market after the pandemic-era boom cooled down.
Unacademy is expected to have a cash balance of ₹900 crore to ₹950 crore once the transaction closes, likely around June-July next year. The company has raised about $830 million so far from investors including Blume Ventures, Peak XV Partners and Elevation Capital. upGrad has raised around $330 million and was last valued at $1.9 billion.
The merger, if cleared, will rank among the biggest consolidation moves in Indian edtech. The sector has been under pressure since offline learning returned and online demand softened after Covid. The troubles at BYJU’S, once valued at $22 billion, have also cast a long shadow over investor sentiment in the category.
For Unacademy, Jain’s exit is not just a leadership change. It signals the end of one operating phase and the beginning of another, where Munjal will have to steer the company through a merger, valuation reset and a very different edtech market from the one that powered its rapid rise.
Also Read: Who Owns Your Team Now? IPL’s Latest Ownership Breakdown
