The online learning industry has taken the world by storm, and India boasts some of the biggest e-learning startups in the market. Thus, the country is a battleground for these startups at the moment, and it looks like Unacademy, a household name in India at this point, has added another general to its army. The company has announced that it has acquired TapChief, an online platform for professionals to interact with experts and hone their skills.
This is the reason we are acquiring @tapchief.
— Gaurav Munjal (@gauravmunjal) February 16, 2021
With this investment, TapChief’s existing investors (a list that includes Blume Ventures, Paytm, 500 Startups and angel investors such as Cred founder Kunal Shah, Udhyam founder Mekin Maheshwari, and Slideshare founder Amit Ranjan), will exit the company.
TapChief provides an online platform directed exclusively at professionals, and helps them interact with experts around the world. It also lets users build their brand by forming relationships with others. In essence, it is like LinkedIn, with a greater emphasis on learning rather than interacting.
The company claims to have helped “over 150,000+ solopreneurs to work with 250+ customers, driving over 20Cr+ in incomes.” The startup also says that professionals on its platform have completed “over 50,000 gigs for Fortune 500 Companies, Unicorns, Venture-backed Startups and SMBs in India”.
“TapChief’s mission has been to empower the modern Indian professional with access to a wide array of opportunities that enhances their career and growth. We are excited to learn from the Unacademy team and carry forward our mission at a greater scale as part of the Unacademy Group,” said TapChief chief executive Shashank Murali.
With TapChief’s help, Unacademy aims to launch Unacademy Pro, which will help students prepare for their career paths, allowing them to learn the skills that they will need to secure good jobs and form professional networks.
In the words of Unacademy founder Gaurav Munjal:
A platform which helps you become a Pro and get your dream job.
— Gaurav Munjal (@gauravmunjal) February 16, 2021
This comes after Unacademy acquired PrepLadder and Coursavy, as it prepares to take up the fight against Byju’s, which has become the biggest e-learning startup in the world. Byju’s is also nearing the acquisition of Toppr, a report from Bloomberg suggested.
That is not all, as both companies have been raising heavy amounts of capital to cope with the increasing traffic on their platforms. Unacademy recently added Tiger Global and Dragoneer as investors in its latest funding round, whereas Byju’s raised $500million in funding.
Thus, the competition is only about to get tougher, and with TapChief, Unacademy aims to come out on top.
