The Rs 1,955 Crore upGrad-Unacademy Deal Is Down to Its Final Three Weeks

Deals like this one rarely close with a single signature. They close in waves, one investor at a time, until suddenly there is nothing left to sign. UpGrad's acquisition of Unacademy has reached that final wave, and people close to the matter say the ink should be fully dry within three weeks.

According to sources, almost all institutional investors have signed the Share Subscription Agreement, while every angel investor has already signed off on the Share Purchase Agreement, leaving only closing formalities before the deal is done. The all-stock transaction is now valued at around Rs 1,955 crore, a touch below the figure floated when the acquisition was first announced earlier this year.

Unacademy co-founder Gaurav Munjal will stay on as CEO once the merger goes through, and the deal is not limited to Unacademy's core business. Airlearn, the language-learning platform Unacademy incubated in-house, moves under the upGrad umbrella too. Consolidation is already underway on the operational side, with PrepLadder's headquarters shifting from Chandigarh to Bengaluru, where Unacademy, PrepLadder, Airlearn, and Graphy will all now be based. Unacademy's existing investors will also receive one board seat at upGrad once the transaction closes.

The Competition Commission of India cleared the deal earlier this month, removing the last major regulatory hurdle for what stands as one of the biggest consolidation moves India's edtech sector has seen. Once finalised, the combined company will fold upGrad's higher education and upskilling business together with Unacademy's test prep, medical education, and creator-led learning platforms under one roof.

The two companies arrive at this merger from very different financial positions. Unacademy's operating revenue fell 16% year-on-year to Rs 826.3 crore in FY25, while upGrad turned a corner of its own, reporting a provisional profit of Rs 38.8 crore over the 11 months through February 2026 and going EBITDA positive with Rs 56.9 crore on revenue of Rs 1,531.7 crore, a profitable anchor for a business absorbing a much larger, still-shrinking one.