After months of talks and discussions, upGrad has finally signed a term sheet to acquire 100% stake in Unacademy in a share swap deal, with Unacademy’s Gaurav Munjal and upGrad’s Ronnie Screwvala both confirming the news on Sunday.
Munjal will stay on as CEO, and says AI will be central to what comes next for the edtech company, which has gone through some major swings in the past three years.
The Deal: The acquisition covers Unacademy’s full portfolio, including AI-driven learning platform Airlearn, which Screwvala noted is already gaining global traction. Terms weren’t disclosed, but the share swap structure mirrors upGrad’s recent purchase of internship platform Internshala, reportedly valued around ₹100 Cr.
A Long Way From $3.5 Bn: Unacademy was once valued at $3.5 Bn, backed by Tiger Global, SoftBank, and Peak XV, having raised over $830 million in total. Merger talks with Allen, K-12 Techno Services, and upGrad itself previously fell apart over valuation.
Munjal has since acknowledged a realistic valuation figure closer to $500 Mn. In recent months, the company bought back ₹50 Cr in ESOPs and announced an exit from its offline centres — both moves pointing toward a leaner, more capital-efficient model.
upGrad’s Consolidation Play: For upGrad, this is its second acquisition in a month and at least the seventh since 2022. The company has also expressed interest in BYJU’S stressed assets, currently under insolvency proceedings. The pattern is clear: upGrad is positioning itself as the dominant consolidator in a sector still recovering from its pandemic-era excess.
Read the full story here as upGrad looks to consolidate the beleaguered edtech sector…
India is facing a silent epidemic of lifestyle diseases. Traditional healthcare often misses the root causes of such chronic illnesses, leaving patients in a cycle of temporary fixes. Enter Foxo, a longevity platform that uses science to help Indians reclaim their healthspan.
Foxo’s Systems Biology: Founded in 2024, Foxo is a startup focused on proactive longevity. By leveraging systems biology, an approach that views the body as an interconnected network, the startup provides members with a digital twin of their health.
Using biomarkers, and AI-driven modeling, Foxo identifies early warning signs of chronic diseases and offers hyper-personalised lifestyle interventions to maximise a user’s healthspan.
Mapping A Healthier Future: The platform’s backbone is a multidisciplinary clinical team, comprising genomic scholars and nutritionists, which is supported by AI models like Claude. The tech handles the heavy lifting – analysing food logs and biomarker data – so doctors can focus on hyper-personalised coaching.
Foxo’s Business Model: The startup offers two membership plans. While the flagship tier caters to business executives and runs into Lakhs of Rupees, the ₹10,000 Primer membership slab aims to make longevity science accessible to a broader audience. The company claims to have so far onboarded 50 Flagship members, and plans to accept 100 members in the first Primer cohort.
Going forward, the startup aims to experiment with different price points and roll out specialised programmes focused on women’s health and cancer survivors. So, can Foxo flip the script from reactive sick-care to proactive longevity?
AI is increasingly becoming the reason people are losing jobs. From Oracle and Amazon to Livspace and Ola Electric, AI-driven efficiency is accelerating layoffs. Here’s the exhaustive list…
The post upGrad Acquires Unacademy, Jio IPO Buzz & More appeared first on Inc42 Media.
