(BLOOMBERG) – India’s online education startup Unacademy said its valuation reached US$3.44 billion (S$4.65 billion) in a funding round led by Temasek Holdings, a nearly 10-fold increase in the past year and a half as the coronavirus boosts demand for remote learning.
The start-up raised US$440 million in a Series H round, with General Atlantic, Tiger Global Management, SoftBank Vision Fund and Mirae Asset Securities, according to a statement from the company Monday.
The coronavirus pandemic has boosted the popularity of online education as students and professionals seek to upgrade their skills, while schools and offices have shuttered.
Indian digital education peer Byju’s has become the country’s most valuable start-up and is expanding aggressively through acquisitions.
Unacademy was founded by Gaurav Munjal, Hemesh Singh and Roman Saini in 2015. It specialises in test preparation for a wide array of competitive fields including India’s civil service, banking and programming through a roster of celebrity teachers. It has more than 50,000 educators and 62 million users and offers courses in 14 Indian languages.
The Bangalore-based company also got funding from entrepreneurs Ritesh Agarwal of Oyo Hotels and Homes Pvt and Deepinder Goyal of Zomato.