Post-Layoffs, Unacademy Rejects Merger Rumours

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CEO Gaurav Munjal said that the edtech firm have its best year in terms of growth and profitability and many years to run the company….reports Asian Lite News

After reported layoffs of around 250 employees in the latest job cuts, edtech firm Unacademy Co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal on Wednesday denied the reports of a possible merger or an outright acquisition, saying “ignore the rumours”.

“There is a lot being said about Unacademy currently,” Munjal wrote in a post on X.

He further said that the edtech firm have its best year in terms of growth and profitability and many years to run the company.

“To set the record straight, Unacademy will have its best year in terms of growth and profitability. We also have many years of runway. We are building Unacademy for the long run,” the CEO said.

As per reports, Unacademy has approached coaching institute Allen, edtech firm Physics Wallah, education services company K12 Techno and other large education coaching companies.

According to TechCrunch, citing sources, the edtech firm will be letting go of 100 employees from marketing, business and product, and about 150 in sales.

The layoffs bring Unacademy’s total job cuts to around 2,000 since the second half of 2022.

Last month, Munjal, in a post, commented on edtech firm Byju’s fall.

He said that Byju Raveendran, Founder and Group CEO of Byju’s, faced setbacks as he put himself on a pedestal and stopped listening to anyone.

“Byju failed because he didn’t listen to anyone. He put himself on a pedestal and stopped listening. Don’t do that. Never do that. Don’t listen to everyone but have people who can give you blunt feedback,” Munjal said.

“You might not always like the feedback, but take the feedback and act on it,” he added.

Unacademy’s CEO started his series of posts with some learnings he had in the last two years before arriving at the criticism for Byju’s.

“Learnings from the last 24 months: Understanding the Unit Economics on Day One is probably the best thing you can do,” Munjal said.

He further added that “some investors are assets, some are liabilities. The trick is to figure out the ones who are assets and listen to them”.

Meanwhile, global investment giant Prosus has written off the value of its shareholding in Byju’s, recording a loss of $493 million.

In its annual report for FY24, the investment firm said that in the financial year, “the group wrote off the fair value of its 9.6 per cent effective interest in Byju’s, due to the decrease in value for equity investors.”

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