Archit Nanda

Six years ago today, Unacademy became a unicorn. Today, Unacademy has closed its acquisition by UpGrad for just over $200M. We raised at a peak, but sold at a fraction of that. I'm not going to dress these facts up. But I am proud of what this team did between those two numbers. When @RomanSaini and I started Unacademy with @hemezh and @sumjain, the mission was to democratise education. We didn't end up capturing all the economic value of that mission. But we changed what online education looks like in this country, and the products we built became the template for the entire sector. Unacademy's free platform created a generation of celebrity educators. Educators are a cornerstone of any economy, and they should be celebrated, and our platform enabled that in our country. Their YouTube videos crossed 10 billion views. That's a milestone I am proud of. Airlearn, in under two years, became one of the top 3 most downloaded language learning apps in the world. We always wanted to build a global consumer product out of India. We did. With a topline of around 400 crores, most businesses profitable or near-profitable, and 900 crores in the bank, we had every option to keep going independently. Nobody was forcing this. But sometimes, you are drawn towards a path that is more exciting than the one that makes you more money. After meeting Ronnie over the years, understanding what he's built with UpGrad in higher education, and getting inspired by his vision for education in India (and more), I always walked away with the thought that it would be fantastic to work with him. And because there was no pressure of running out of money, we could take the time to actually think it through. The more we did, the clearer it got: this is a better path for the ecosystem, not just for us. I'm looking forward to the path ahead, and I am very sure that our shareholders will create immense value from the merger hereon. My heartfelt thanks to every employee who stayed when it would have been easier to leave. To everyone who worked with us in the past. To our educators. To our investors. To my co-founders. We did four ESOP buybacks that created real value for our employees, even though the founders and investors didn't create much for themselves in the process. A special note to a few people without whom I would have personally given up when things got really hard: Shailendra Singh, Deepinder Goyal, Bhavin Turakhia, Sujeet Kumar, Bhavish Aggarwal, Aakrit Vaish, Mukul Arora, Shantanu Rastogi and Karthik Reddy. Also a huge shoutout to family and friends. And most importantly, my wife Reema, and my co-founder and close friend of almost 20 years, Roman. Thanks for sticking around during my lowest and my cockiest moments. You two make me better 🌞

When we started Airlearn two years ago, we had one goal: to build an Iconic Global Product built from India. As of today: - Around 2M Monthly Downloads without any performance marketing spends, making Airlearn one of the top five downloaded language learning apps globally - 25M Lessons completed every Month - Almost $5M Bookings Run-rate with 110k Active Paid Subscribers - AI Subscription now driving almost 10% of the Bookings - More than 50 Courses now Live on the App including Chess From India to the World ❤️

Unacademy and upGrad have signed a term sheet for upGrad to acquire Unacademy in a 100% share swap deal. Neither side will disclose the valuation until closing, when the papers are filed and the transaction becomes public. In the last one year, a lot has happened at Unacademy: - We consolidated company operated centres with franchise partners so we could refocus on what we do best, building great online education products - We completed a ₹50 crore ESOP buyback and nearly 40% of former employees have already participated - Airlearn, our first global product, is gaining meaningful traction in the US, UK, Germany and Canada - Our Cash Reserves as of today are more than $100M I will be staying back as Co-Founder and CEO Unacademy - with the Goal to build Great Online Products for Learners in India and Globally. Unacademy helped invent the Modern EdTech Playbook. Along the way we lost some focus and market share, and the sector itself has not seen enough real product innovation in recent years. AI will fundamentally reshape education, and EdTech may become one of its biggest beneficiaries. The opportunity to reimagine learning products has never been greater. I have long admired what @RonnieScrewvala and the upGrad team have built. They have quietly but relentlessly established themselves in the upskilling, lifelong learning and higher education space. If & when we do come together, we share upGrad’s belief that ‘The Whole is bigger than the Sum of Parts’ and altogether we will impact students, learners and working professionals & build great Products from K12 to Forever Learning. The next chapter for education is only beginning.

Airlearn is looking for Product Managers. Airlearn is the fastest growing Product of Unacademy Group. We are building an AI Learning Product from India for the World. In the last twelve Months, we have grown 10x in terms of Revenue. More than 11M Lessons are being completed on Airlearn every Month with the biggest Markets being US, UK, Canada and Germany. More than 30% of our DAUs have a 100-day Streak on Airlearn. We started with Language Learning and we are soon launching Courses like English Vocabulary and Chess. We are looking for Product Managers to join our team who are obsessed about Consumer Products and want to help build a Global Product that helps people get addicted to Learning. If you are interested in joining the team, email us at [email protected].