Unacademy's Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini plan ₹700-crore fund focused on AI, deeptech startups: Report
Unacademy founders Gaurav Munjal and Roman Saini are raising a ₹700-crore venture capital fund focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and deep technology startups, sources told the Economic Times in an exclusive interview.
The report comes less than two months after UpGrad acquired the education technology (edtech) company.
According to sources, the fund, named Longshot Capital, has secured commitments of about ₹300 crore and is targeting its first close in January 2027, following which it plans to start investing.
Who's running it: Roman Saini will lead the fund full-time, while Gaurav Munjal, who continues to head Unacademy, will be involved part-time, The Economic Times reported.
The plan: Longshot aims to back 25-28 seed and pre-Series A startups with initial cheques of 500,000-1.5 million, focusing on AI, manufacturing, space, defence and robotics.
The bigger picture: The two have made over 200 angel investments, deploying more than ₹25 crore. Their move follows other startup founders, including Snapdeal's Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, setting up investment funds.
UpGrad completed the acquisition of Unacademy for just over $200 million, about 94 per cent off its 2021 peak valuation, with co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal acknowledging the steep markdown in a post on LinkedIn, according to PTI.
Munjal wrote that the company became a unicorn (a privately held firm valued at more than USD 1 billion) six years ago. Unacademy had raised capital at its peak valuation but was ultimately sold for a fraction of that amount.
"Six years ago today, Unacademy became a unicorn. Today, Unacademy has closed its acquisition by UpGrad for just over USD 200 million. We raised at a peak, but sold at a fraction of that. I'm not going to dress these facts up," Munjal wrote on LinkedIn.
While Munjal did not quantify the exact markdown in his post, it may be recalled that back in 2021, Unacademy had raised USD 440 million (about ₹3,270.8 crore at that time) in funding from a clutch of investors including Temasek, General Atlantic, and Softbank Vision Fund, valuing the edtech major at USD 3.44 billion
The acquisition price of just over USD 200 million is, therefore, about 94 per cent lower than Unacademy's peak valuation.
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