Education technology startup Unacademy has raised a $150 million funding led by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, taking the firm’s valuation to $1.5 billion.
Existing investors that participated in the funding round are Facebook, General Atlantic, Sequoia India, Nexus Venture Partners, and Blume Ventures. Earlier in February, Unacademy had raised $110 million from Facebook and PE firm General Atlantic.
This is SoftBank’s first investment in an Indian firm since December, when it had backed eyewear retailer Lenskart. SoftBank has cut its investment globally following the IPO debacle at WeWork.
This funding comes amid increased investor interest in the online education sector that has seen stupendous growth amid the pandemic. Byju’s saw its valuation increase to $10.5 billion in June, from $8 billion in January while live online learning platform Vedantu also saw its valuation soar to $600 million.
Earlier this year, Unacademy had acquired Chandigarh-based ed-tech startup PrepLadder, and Kreatryx, an online preparation platform for various competitive exams including Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering or GATE.
Unacademy aims to build the world’s largest online knowledge repository for multi-lingual education. It uses technology to empower great educators and create a community of self-learners. The Company’s vision is to partner with the brightest minds and democratise education for everyone looking to learn.
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