Started as a YouTube channel, Unacademy became a unicorn in September 2020 as it raised $150 million due to COVID-driven growth in the Indian edtech sector. The Indian educational technology sector is poised to strengthen much more. Unacademy, India’s second-largest EdTech unicorn, is focusing on broadening its umbrella to stay relevant in the scene. The company, which began its buying spree with five acquisitions last year, announced its latest deal on Tuesday.
Unacademy has now acquired TapChief, a professional network platform worth Rs 100 crore. It has acquired a large stake in TapChief, a platform that allows businesses and professionals to contact specialists on request and provide all existing users with a point of sale. The company has more than 1.5 lakh professionals operating on the platform.
What Will Unacademy Capture with TapChief?
Over the past four years, TapChief has served over 150 business clients in areas such as education, consumer goods, e-commerce, SaaS activities, and more. The company was founded by BITS Pilani Alumni Shashank Murali, Binay Krishna and Arjun Krishna. TapChief reportedly has over 150,000 registered professionals on the platform to collaborate with experts in their selected fields and execute short-term professional projects.
Shifting Gears of Indian Edtech Sector
Indian edtech start-ups and other education sector businesses received a significant boost in 2020, with users, ratings and funding growing faster. Prominent education start-ups – BYJU’s, Unacademy, upGrad, Vedantu and others- saw their numbers soar. The future aspect of more money is driving this capital high for investors, hoping to get on the educational bandwagon’s rising tide.
Even after universities, schools and colleges reopen after the pandemic recedes, the Indian education scenario will have changed forever. Edtech companies hope to continue generating more interest among users in future. India’s education industry is poised to grow from $117 billion to $225 billion by FY25 (source: PGA Labs and IVCA). And clearly, India’s edtech companies are all pouncing on the opportunity to gain the most significant market share.
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Unacademy has acquired TapChief, a professional network platform with a base of more than 1.5 lakh professionals already operating on it.
Unacademy’s Other Major Acquisitions
Kreatyrx: Kreatyrx offers products including online test series, video courses, postal courses, and coaching classes for GATE and SSC CGL aspirants.
CodeChef: CodeChef teaches programmers to learn competitive programming.
PrepLadder: PrepLadder is an online program for medical entrance exam training.
Coursavy: Coursavy helps in preparing for UPSC CSE.
NeoStencil: An online Platform for government job exams preparation.
Edtech Boom Will Increase Employment Opportunities
Top Indian EdTech start-ups, including Unacademy, Byju’s, upGrad and Udemy, are scaling up their workforce. Combined, these edtech companies are expected to hire somewhere between 12,600-13,000 new employees in 2021. The increase in hiring for these start-ups will oscillate between 30-200%. The pandemic has accelerated the global e-learning movement, and companies believe that this growth momentum will continue in the future too.
While the sector witnessed widespread acceptance and growth in last year, 2021 will see proper quantum growth for edtech, as government policy, products, and user behaviour proceed to shift from status quo subsistence to the active seeking of new skills using technology as an enabler.
