Unacademy won't bankroll Airlearn; Munjal taps funds

Unacademy founder Gaurav Munjal's vision to hive off his in-house passion project Airlearn has taken a turn, with investors pushing an alternate model to build what could become a growth driver for the edtech firm.

- Mansi Verma & Sneha Shah

Munjal had proposed to hive off the language learning business Airlearn, with Unacademy moving 10% of its cash to the new entity and its existing investors holding an 80% stake, while Munjal and co-founder Roman Saini would own the rest.

However, Unacademy's investors signed off on a different plan in August, four people aware of the development said, under which the company's investors will own half of Airlearn, and transfer no cash. Instead, Munjal and Saini, who plan to run Airlearn together, will raise external capital for the venture.

The future of Airlearn gains significance for Unacademy, which had a meteoric rise during the pandemic, but suffered as remote learning ebbed. Meanwhile, Airlearn, still in early stages, has shown promise, and could fuel the company's return to profitability.

Unacademy cut its FY24 losses by 62% to ₹631 crore from ₹1,678 crore in the same period.