Gaurav Munjal steps down as Unacademy CEO; Akhilendra Kumar takes charge

Unacademy co-founder Gaurav Munjal has stepped down as chief executive officer of the Bengaluru-based edtech company and moved to the role of executive chairman, he announced in a post on X on Wednesday, 11 November 2026. Akhilendra Kumar, until now Unacademy's chief business officer, takes over as CEO. The change comes about two months after rival upGrad completed its all-stock acquisition of Unacademy, at a valuation reported at about $206 million (around Rs 1,955 crore).

Unacademy was one of the best-known names of India's edtech boom. It was founded in 2015 by Gaurav Munjal, Hemesh Singh and Roman Saini, and grew from free online lessons into a large platform for coaching students for competitive exams such as civil services, engineering and medical entrance tests. During the Covid-19 lockdowns, when schools and coaching centres closed, online learning companies drew large sums from investors, and Unacademy became a unicorn, a private start-up valued at more than $1 billion.

That boom faded as classrooms reopened. Edtech companies across India cut jobs, closed units and raised money at lower values or not at all. Unacademy's sale to upGrad, another Indian online education company, showed how far valuations in the sector had fallen. Founders who once ran companies on their own are now often working inside larger groups, and leadership changes such as this one are a common next step after a merger.

The move also shows a familiar pattern for founders after an acquisition. Instead of leaving, Munjal is taking a board-level role while handing day-to-day management to an executive who rose inside the company. In his post, Munjal said he was "not going anywhere" and would remain closely involved. He also named upGrad's planned IPO as part of his work; the reports gave no date for that listing.

Peepals calculation: a sale value of about $206 million against a peak valuation of $3.44 billion means the company was sold for roughly 6% of its peak value, a fall of about $3.23 billion. Working: 206 / 3,440 = 0.060, so the drop is about 94%, and 3,440 - 206 = 3,234 million. Put another way, the peak valuation was almost 17 times the sale value (3,440 / 206 = 16.7). The time from the reported close of the deal on 1 September 2026 to the CEO change on 11 November 2026 was 71 days. Our calculation from the reported figures.

Short-term: Unacademy's staff, teachers and learners get a new chief executive, but the founder remains in the company as executive chairman. Reports on the change did not mention any layoffs, product closures or price changes for learners.

Long-term: the change brings Unacademy's management closer to the way a unit of a larger group is usually run, with a professional manager handling operations and the founder working on strategy and the parent company's listing plans. Whether the focus on profitable growth succeeds will show in Unacademy's future financial results.

Who is affected: Unacademy's employees and educators, students preparing for competitive exams on the platform, upGrad and its shareholders, former Unacademy investors who now hold upGrad shares, and the wider Indian edtech sector watching how merged companies are run.

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