Edtech

Inside Unacademy’s potential sale to upGrad and the end of edtech’s golden age

Nikhil Patwardhan

November 11, 2025 | 12 Min Read

As PhysicsWallah goes public and Byju’s battles insolvency, Unacademy’s potential merger with upGrad marks the end of edtech’s gold-rush years—a reckoning that’s turning India’s once-frenzied learning revolution into a story of survival.

In the summer of 2021, edtech was India’s new gold rush. Investors, flush with pandemic-era liquidity, were betting on screens replacing classrooms forever. That year, Unacademy flew its top brass to Dubai for an off-site that felt more like a victory parade than a company retreat. The who’s who of India’s edtech ecosystem was there, along with Unacademy’s backers.

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