Unacademy, the Indian edtech startup led by Gaurav Munjal, has reported a significant reduction in its consolidated net loss for the financial year ended March 31, 2023. The startup’s net loss narrowed to INR 1,678.1 Cr in FY23 from INR 2,847.9 Cr in the previous fiscal, marking a decrease of almost 40%. This improvement was attributed to a sharp reduction in costs.
Unacademy’s operating revenue saw a notable increase, rising by 26% to INR 907 Cr in FY23 from INR 719.2 Cr in the preceding fiscal year. The startup, founded in 2015 by Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini, and Hemesh Singh, has built a network of 91,000 registered educators and boasts over 99 million learners. It offers educational services in over 14 Indian languages across various cities. In addition to Unacademy, the group includes subsidiaries such as Graphy, UnacademyX, NextLevel, and Prepladder.
Unacademy also managed to reduce its total expenditure by 26% to INR 2,734.2 Cr during FY23, compared to INR 3,702.8 Cr in FY22. The reduction in expenses was driven by several factors:
Advertising Expenses The startup saw a significant decline in advertising expenses, which dropped by 33% to INR 370.2 Cr in FY23 from INR 548.7 Cr in FY22.
Educator Charges:Payments to educators were reduced by 31% to INR 564.2 Cr in FY23 from INR 814.2 Cr in FY22.
Employee Benefit ExpensesEmployee costs decreased by 28% to INR 1,281.2 Cr in FY23 from INR 1,771.6 Cr in the previous fiscal year. This reduction was attributed to multiple rounds of layoffs.
Despite facing challenges in its online business, Unacademy’s offline business, Unacademy Centres, witnessed growth, with its learners increasing to 32,000 in 2023 from 6,000 in 2022. The startup’s Graphy vertical is also on the verge of achieving profitability. Gaurav Munjal recently announced that the startup had reduced its cash burn by 60% in 2023, with a cash runway of four months.
Unacademy has faced tough times, including layoffs affecting over 2,000 employees since the beginning of 2022 and pay cuts for higher management. The startup also experienced several senior-level exits in the past year. However, it has expressed optimism about its future prospects.
Unacademy has raised over $800 Mn in funding to date and has prominent backers such as Temasek, Elevation Capital, Tiger Global, and SoftBank. The startup continues to focus on its growth and expansion in the competitive edtech market.
Source: Startup Story
