Facebook-backed Unacademy buys professional networking platform TapChief

Post acquisition, TapChief will join the Unacademy Group with a valuation of Rs 100 crore

Edtech unicorn Unacademy, has acquired TapChief, a leading professional networking and future of work platform. As part of the deal, Unacademy, which is backed by SoftBank and Facebook, will acquire a majority stake in TapChief, and enable the exit of all existing investors. Post the acquisition, TapChief will join the Unacademy Group with a valuation of Rs 100 crore.

“Our endeavour at Unacademy has always been to democratise education and make learning accessible and affordable for everyone,” said Gaurav Munjal, co-founder and CEO, Unacademy Group. “TapChief shares a similar ethos in a different space, as evident from the open community of professionals and learners they’ve created.”

TapChief was founded in 2016 by BITS Pilani alumni, Shashank Murali, Binay Krishna, and Arjun Krishna. It caters to over 150 enterprise customers across sectors such as Education, FMCG, e-Commerce, enterprise SaaS and upskilling. Professionals on TapChief have completed over 50,000 gigs for Fortune 500 companies, unicorns, venture-backed startups and SMBs in India.

TapChief leverages a host of technology solutions to empower professionals to interact and learn from experts, work with businesses from across the world, and aggregate their personal brand online. It has more than 150,000 registered professionals, who use the platform to collaborate with a host of experts from their chosen domains and take up short-term professional projects.

Shashank Murali, co-founder and CEO of TapChief said the firm’s mission has been to empower the modern Indian professional with access to a wide array of opportunities that enhances their career and growth. “Starting from college as undergraduate students to becoming a part of one of India's best-known unicorns has been a dream come true for a young team like ours,” said Murali. “We are excited to learn from the Unacademy team and carry forward our mission at a greater scale and fervour as part of the Unacademy Group.”

After raising mega funding from SoftBank and Tiger Global, Unacademy is gearing up to take on decacorn Byju’s. The Bengaluru-based company which is valued at around $2 billion is looking at making acquisitions and pick strategic stakes in firms that would help it to achieve this goal, according to the sources. Last year Unacademy picked 51 per cent stake in K-12 learning platform Mastree for $5 million to strengthen its presence in the K-12 learning space. 

Last year, it acquired the postgraduate medical entrance exam preparation platform, PrepLadder, for $50 million. Unacademy acquired Kreatryx, an online preparation platform for GATE and the Engineering Services Exam (ESE), in a cash and stock deal. It also purchased Coursavy, a platform for UPSC test preparation, for an undisclosed amount. 

Rival company Byju's is also reportedly in talks to acquire edtech company Toppr Technologies in a transaction valued at about $150 million. Byju’s is also in talks to acquire exam preparation firm Aakash Educational Services Limited for about $700 million-$750 million, according to the sources.

READ MORE: Byju's set to acquire edtech rival Toppr for $150 million, says report