Unacademy CEO lays IPO roadmap: Pay cuts, IPL deal pullout, ‘frugality’

Responding to a user on Twitter, Unacademy co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal said, “The last three years with IPL were amazing. Our Brand went to another level. I recommend all upcoming Brands to partner with IPL. Our focus has changed. Hence the decision to not do IPL next year.”

Separately, in an internal note shared with employees, Munjal also said that the firm’s upper level management (CXOs), and other employees will no longer be provided with a business class ticket for travel. Those who may want an upgrade “can pay from their own pocket,” he said in the memo, a copy of which was viewed by The Indian Express.

He also said the firm will not be providing other privileges available to its CXOs, like dedicated drivers, anymore. “We will be shutting down certain businesses that have failed to find PMF (product market fit) like Global Test Prep,” Munjal said. In the note, he assured employees that the cost cutting methods do not mean that the firm is in a bad state, claiming that it had more than Rs 2,800 crore in the bank as of Monday.

Munjal added in the note, “But now the goal has changed. We have to do an IPO (initial public offering) in the next two years. And we have to turn cashflow positive. For that we must embrace frugality as a core value.” Unacademy declined to comment on the internal memo.

The development comes amid a freeze on funding available to Indian startups, which has forced a number of the nation’s storied startups like Unacademy to lay staff and shut down entire business verticals. Unacademy is said to have laid off anywhere between 700 and 1,000 people, and had earlier shut down its K-12 (kindergarten to class 12) business vertical. In total, Indian startups have handed pink slips to over 12,000 people so far in 2022.

As demand for online education has dropped with the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, Unacademy had in May announced its foray into the offline learning space by launching its own coaching centres, offering tuition for competitive examinations. The startup has reportedly spent hundreds of crores in recruiting employees for its first centre in Kota, the country’s private coaching hub.