Hemesh Singh, co-founder and CTO of Unacademy, has decided to step down after nearly a decade with the Bengaluru-based edtech company. He will now take on an advisory role. Singh announced his departure on the social media platform X, expressing gratitude for his journey and stating that they had significantly impacted the Test Prep Industry.
Unacademy was co-founded by Singh, Gaurav Munjal, and Roman Saini. In August of the previous year, Sumit Jain was promoted to co-founder and currently oversees the Graphy division of Unacademy.
This marks the third major departure from Unacademy within the last year. In August 2023, COO Vivek Sinha resigned and later founded Beyond Odds Technologies, raising $11 million from Matrix Partners India and Lightspeed in April. In November, CFO Subramanian Ramachandran also left the company. Pratik Dalal was appointed CFO of Unacademy's offline centers business in January.
The company raised $440 million in its last equity round led by Temasek in August 2021, valuing it at $3.44 billion. Since then, Unacademy has undergone significant changes, including mass layoffs, closing acquired verticals, and opening several offline centers. Recently, the company entered the language learning market with a new app.
In December 2023, Munjal revealed that Unacademy had Rs 1,800 crore in the bank, giving it a four-year runway, which he expected to extend to eight years by reducing the company’s burn rate. This statement aligns with the company’s financial performance in FY23, where Unacademy increased its operating revenue by 26% to Rs 907 crore and reduced losses by nearly 40% to Rs 1,004 crore. At the start of FY24, the company claimed to be nearing profitability at the group level, though it has yet to file its audited financial statements for FY24.
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