BENGALURU: Online learning has become the new normal post-pandemic, and many edtech platforms have announced their plans to go public in the recent months.
After Byju's, upGrad and Vedantu, edtech platform Unacademy is also eyeing IPO (Initial Public Offering) in the next two years.
Launching an experience centre- Unacademy Store- on Friday in Delhi, Gaurav Munjal, Co-Founder and CEO, Unacademy Group said apart from the store in Delhi, the start-up also aims to launch three more stores in Jaipur, Lucknow and Kota.
"We are on track to achieve profitability in our core business- test preparation platform- in the next one year," he said.
The Unacademy Store is launched with an aim to promote its online business. The edtech platform is also exploring the hybrid-retail model with this launch.
"Through these stores, we will be marketing our offerings to both parents and students. We want to develop a community of learners. We need a place where we can showcase our products to every corner of the country," Munjal said.
These stores will serve as an offline touchpoint for learners who want to browse through the various platform offerings, Unacademy said.
The platform is witnessing 60% Y-o-Y growth, and it wants to be a multi-product company. It has over 50 million active learners. Unacademy forays into the offline space at a time when Byju's is focused on its offline business with the launch of Tuition Centres. Byju's recently said it plans to increase its tuition centres to 500 in 200 cities by the end of this year.
In August last year, Unacademy raised $440 million in a round led by Tiger Global, Temasek and General Atlantic, and it was valued at $3.44 billion. Both Oyo and Zomato founders have invested in Unacademy.