Edtech

Unacademy to Appoint Sumit Jain to Board of Directors, Replacing Co-Founder Hemesh Singh

• ByStartupStory     |    June 11, 2024

Unacademy, the prominent edtech company, has announced plans to appoint Sumit Jain to its board of directors. Jain, who is a partner at Unacademy and the Co-founder and CEO of Unacademy-owned SaaS platform Graphy, will fill the seat to be vacated by Co-founder Hemesh Singh. This development follows Singh’s recent decision to step down from his role as Chief Technology Officer, transitioning to an advisory capacity, as reported by The Arc.

Sumit Jain’s elevation to the board is seen as a strategic move for Unacademy. Jain, a serial entrepreneur, has a notable track record in the tech industry. He began developing Graphy in April 2020, a platform designed for creators and educators. Prior to this, he co-founded CommonFloor, a real estate portal acquired by Quickr for $200 million in 2016. Jain has also made significant investments as an angel investor, including in Unacademy itself.

Unacademy has seen a series of high-profile changes in its top-level management recently. Jagnoor Singh was promoted to Chief Operating Officer of the company’s offline centres business earlier this year, shortly after Pratik Dalal was named Chief Financial Officer of Unacademy centres. However, the company has also experienced several key departures, including Senior Vice President Arnab Dutta, Chief Financial Officer Subramanian Ramachandran, Chief Operating Officer Vivek Sinha, and Abhyudaya Rana, Vice President and Chief of Staff at the CTO’s Office.

In the wake of these changes, Unacademy appointed Sandhydeep Purri as its Chief People Officer to strengthen its leadership team.

Last week, Unacademy expanded its offerings by launching a language learning app, which marks a new revenue stream for the company. The app initially offers Spanish lessons, with plans to introduce French, German, and Indian languages soon. This move positions Unacademy to compete with established global language learning platforms such as Duolingo and Babbel.

Unacademy’s diversification into language learning comes as the company experiences mixed financial performance. While its offline business has seen growth, revenue from its core online test preparation segment has declined.

Founded in 2015 by Gaurav Munjal, Hemesh Singh, and Roman Saini, Unacademy boasts a vast network of over 91,000 registered educators and more than 99 million learners. The platform provides educational content in over 14 Indian languages across 10,000 cities.

Follow Startup Story