Edtech unicorn Unacademy has acquired networking platform TapChief at a ₹100 crore valuation. This is its sixth acquisition in the last one year.
TapChief is a professional networking and future-of-work platform which enables professionals to learn, network and win short-term projects. As part of the deal, Unacademy will acquire a majority stake in TapChief and enable the exit of all existing investors.
The company did not disclose the deal value.
“Our endeavour at Unacademy has always been to democratise education and make learning accessible and affordable for everyone. TapChief shares a similar ethos in a different space, as evident from the open community of professionals and learners they’ve created,” said Gaurav Munjal, Co-Founder and CEO, Unacademy Group.
TapChief will be leveraged to build Unacademy Pro, a platform which helps one become a pro and get a dream job, Munjal said on Twitter.
“Unacademy started by levelling the playing field for students who can’t travel to Kota, Delhi and other cities by getting them access to these educators and highest quality content for a fraction of the cost. And now it’s time for us to help students get their dream jobs by getting them the best education and access to top companies which they are not getting. This is the reason we are acquiring @tapchief,” Munjal tweeted.
Bengaluru-based TapChief uses technology solutions to help professionals to interact and learn from experts, work with businesses from across the world, and aggregate their personal brand online.
TapChief claims to have over 150,000 registered professionals, who use the platform to collaborate with experts from their chosen domains and take up short-term professional projects.
Founded in 2016 by BITS Pilani alumni, Shashank Murali, Binay Krishna, and Arjun Krishna, TapChief caters to over 150 enterprise customers across sectors such as education, e-commerce, enterprise SaaS, fast-moving consumer goods among others.
“TapChief’s mission has been to empower the modern Indian professional with access to a wide array of opportunities that enhances their career and growth. Starting from college as undergraduate students to becoming a part of one of India’s best-known unicorns has been a dream come true for a young team like ours,” said Shashank Murali, Co-Founder and CEO, TapChief.
Edtech firms such as Unacademy and Byju’s gained significantly last year as schools closed due to the coronavirus pandemic and students took to online classes.
After raising multiple rounds of funding last year, both edtech companies have been on an acquisition spree, and continue to scout for strategic buyouts.
Byju’s is in advanced talks to acquire smaller rival Toppr for $150-160 million, as consolidation continues in India’s booming online learning sector.
Unacademy, which turned unicorn last year and is valued at around $2 billion, acquired multiple startups in recent months, primarily in the test prep space, including NeoStencil, Mastree, PrepLadder, CodeChef and Coursavy.
Over 150,000 live classes are conducted on the Unacademy platform each month and the collective watch time across platforms is over 2 billion minutes per month.
