Bengaluru-based edtech startup Unacademy has bought online test preparation startup NeoStencil for an undisclosed sum, local media Mint reported. This marks Unacademy’s fifth acquisition this year in its expansion to lower tier Indian cities and towns as NeoStencil has a stronghold in non-metro cities.
Founded in 2015 by Kush Beejal and Love Beejal, the Delhi-based startup operates a live-tutoring app. The company partners with private tuition centers in metros as well as smaller cities. It claimed to have enabled over 100 such institutions to go live on its platform. During the lockdown that lasted for a couple of months in India, NeoStencil said it doubled its partnership with educational institutes.
The company offers over 500 courses to 1.1 million students of which 15,000 are paid users.
“Our resolve is to ensure that every aspirant has access to the best resources regardless of whether they live in a metropolitan city. Joining the Unacademy Group enables us to realize this vision by being a part of a larger movement,” said Kush Beejal, Founder and CEO, NeoStencil.
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Before this acquisition, Unacademy bought Code Chef, K-12 learning platform Mastree, PrepLadder, a medical entrance exam preparation platform, and civil services test prep platform Coursavy.
Online education saw exceptional growth this year as schools and tuition centers remained shut for the most part of the year post March as novel coronavirus cases started showing up in India. Edtech companies like Byju’s, Unacademy, Vedantu, Toppr, and others became the go-to options for students and schools alike.
Starting February, Unacademy has raised VC funding in three rounds this year from top-notch investors such as Tiger Global Management, Dragoneer Investment Group, SoftBank Vision Fund, General Atlantic, as well as social media giant Facebook. The latest funding round in November, which was undisclosed, valued the company at USD 2 billion.