Edtech platform Unacademy expands employee stock option pool

Sorting Hat Technologies, which owns and operates test preparation platform Unacademy, has increased its pool of employee stock options (ESOP) from 41,026 to 53,044, according to recent regulatory filings.

The development comes shortly after the Bengaluru-based startup’s co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal tweeted about April being a “phenomenal month” at the company, with 10 times higher revenue growth in comparison to April 2019.

Unacademy. April’20. pic.twitter.com/D07yTTN5lo

— Gaurav Munjal (@gauravmunjal) May 4, 2020

A company spokesperson declined to comment on TechCircle’s request for comments on the valuation of the stock options.

Some of the other technology-based startups in India that have expanded stock options for their employees in the recent past include the parent holdings of Swiggy, OYO, CarDekho, Lenskart, Ola, Bounce and Byju’s.

Read: Post budget, startups and investors lobby for ‘startup friendly’ ESOP taxation norms

Founded in 2015 by Munjal, Roman Saini, Hemesh Singh and Sachin Gupta, Unacademy began as an educational YouTube channel providing free video content for various entrance examinations on its platform. Subsequently, it developed two proprietary apps -- one for learning called ‘Unacademy Learning App’ and another for teaching called ‘Unacademy Educator App.’ 

The learning app operates on a freemium model where users can avail of both free and paid content, depending upon the course chosen.

The company reported a 300% jump in revenues at Rs 21 crore for the financial year 2018-19. However, the company’s losses widened to Rs 90.3 crore from 23.6 crore a year ago on account of higher employee costs and other expenses.

In February, it raised $110 million in a growth funding round from General Atlantic and Facebook. Existing investors Sequoia Capital India, Nexus Venture Partners, Steadview Capital and Blume Ventures were other participants in the round.