ETtechUnacademy cofounder and chief executive Gaurav Munjal told employees in the company’s Slack channel on Tuesday that Tiger Global and Alpha Wave-backed edtech firm Classplus was “definitely overvalued”. Classplus competes directly with Unacademy’s Graphy, a software platform for course creators.
Munjal added that Graphy was clocking a monthly gross merchandise value (GMV) of almost Rs 25 crore, or about half of Classplus’s GMV.
“Some of our zero to one products will become bigger than our core business in the future. Let’s win one month at a time,” he added.
Mukul Rustagi, cofounder and chief executive of Classplus, told ET, "We are growing decently and are way ahead of the metrics mentioned. We respect everyone in the industry and wish Gaurav and his teammates all the best."
Asked about the company’s valuation, Rustagi said, “Our valuation is a culmination of the company's growth and the trust of our shareholders. We have seen continual business success across the years, pre-covid and post-covid. And we will continue to create more value for our customers, shareholders and the industry.” He declined to answer queries on specific numbers about the business.
In March, Classplus raised $70 million in a round of funding co-led by Alpha Wave Global and Tiger Global that valued the startup at about $600 million. The startup also mopped up $65 million from investors in June 2021.
On November 4, Munjal tweeted that Unacademy had cut its monthly burn from $20 million to $7 million.
ET reported on November 7 that Unacademy was cutting as many as 350 jobs to cut costs and turn a profit. According to an internal memo from Munjal, the restructuring exercise was expected to affect about 10% of Unacademy group employees.
The edtech company previously fired around 1,000 contractual and full-time employees, as ET reported in April. Of the affected employees, 300 were educators who worked with Unacademy on contract, while the rest were from business, sales and other functions.
As global macroeconomic conditions and rising interest rates continue to create uncertainty for large fundraises, Indian edtech firms have announced austerity measures and layoffs since the start of the year, anticipating delays in funding rounds. This, coupled with a reopening of brick-and-mortar learning centres, has dealt a double whammy to these firms.
Munjal added that Graphy was clocking a monthly gross merchandise value (GMV) of almost Rs 25 crore, or about half of Classplus’s GMV.
“Graphy is now doing almost Rs 25 crore in monthly GMV. That’s 50% of Classplus which is the market leader with a valuation of $500 million. Classplus is definitely overvalued. But good to know we are #2 in that market. And we will soon be #1. Our product is 10x better. And our team size is 1/10th of Classplus,” Munjal wrote.
“Some of our zero to one products will become bigger than our core business in the future. Let’s win one month at a time,” he added.
Mukul Rustagi, cofounder and chief executive of Classplus, told ET, "We are growing decently and are way ahead of the metrics mentioned. We respect everyone in the industry and wish Gaurav and his teammates all the best."
Asked about the company’s valuation, Rustagi said, “Our valuation is a culmination of the company's growth and the trust of our shareholders. We have seen continual business success across the years, pre-covid and post-covid. And we will continue to create more value for our customers, shareholders and the industry.” He declined to answer queries on specific numbers about the business.
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In March, Classplus raised $70 million in a round of funding co-led by Alpha Wave Global and Tiger Global that valued the startup at about $600 million. The startup also mopped up $65 million from investors in June 2021.
On November 4, Munjal tweeted that Unacademy had cut its monthly burn from $20 million to $7 million.
ET reported on November 7 that Unacademy was cutting as many as 350 jobs to cut costs and turn a profit. According to an internal memo from Munjal, the restructuring exercise was expected to affect about 10% of Unacademy group employees.
The edtech company previously fired around 1,000 contractual and full-time employees, as ET reported in April. Of the affected employees, 300 were educators who worked with Unacademy on contract, while the rest were from business, sales and other functions.
As global macroeconomic conditions and rising interest rates continue to create uncertainty for large fundraises, Indian edtech firms have announced austerity measures and layoffs since the start of the year, anticipating delays in funding rounds. This, coupled with a reopening of brick-and-mortar learning centres, has dealt a double whammy to these firms.
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