Khaitan & Co, JSA, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM), Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM), Bharucha & Partners, CMS INDUSLAW, Bombay Law Chambers (BLC), River Law, Gunderson Dettmer and Fenwick & West advised on upGrad’s acquisition of Unacademy.
upGrad Education Private Limited acquired 100% of Sorting Hat Technologies Private Limited (Unacademy) for total consideration of approximately USD 205–206 million, structured primarily as a share swap with an eventual merger of Unacademy into upGrad.
The transaction represents one of the largest consolidations in the Indian EdTech space and received unconditional approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI), based on submissions demonstrating competitive constraints from a range of alternatives, including AI-based learning tools.
Khaitan & Co advised upGrad Education Pvt Ltd on the acquisition.
The core team consisted of Partners Monika Srivastava and Sanchit Agarwal, Principal Associates Jubin Jay and Chirag Mangal, and Senior Associates Shubhang Upadhyay and Deepansh Goyal.
Competition / Antitrust was led by Partner Pranjal Prateek, with support from Principal Associate Alisha Mehra and Associates Toshika Soni, Ritika Ghosh and Joshua Kurien George. Corporate & Commercial was handled by Principal Associates Chirag Mangal and Jubin Jay, Senior Associates Aditi Gupta and Daanish Dube, and Associates Shivangi Mishra, Akanksha Agrahari, Laksh Sharma, Sameer Parihar, Shriya Garg, Devika Garg, Umang Agarwal and Divyanshu Sharma. Employment, Labour & Benefits was handled by Partners Abhinav Rastogi and Shabnam Shaikh and Senior Associate Ajeta Anand. Intellectual Property was led by Partner Shailendra Bhandare and Senior Associate Vaishali Adhikari. Privacy and Data Protection w comprised Partner Supratim Chakraborty and Principal Associate Shramana Dwibedi.
JSA advised Unacademy and its founders, Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini, Hemesh Singh and Sumit Jain, on the acquisition of Unacademy Group by upGrad Education Private Limited, structured primarily as a share swap with an eventual merger of Unacademy into upGrad.
The JSA team was led by Partner Siddharth Manchanda, with Principal Associate Riya Gupta, Senior Associate Aparimita Choudhary, and Associates Vaastu Tyagi and Aditya Jain.
SAM advised Steadview Capital in relation to the share swap transaction involving Sorting Hat Technologies Private Limited (Unacademy) and upGrad Education Private Limited.
The transaction team comprised Partner Harshita Srivastava and Senior Associate Vidhisha Ambade.
River Law, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Bombay Law Chambers, Bharucha & Partners, CMS INDUSLAW, Gunderson Dettmer and Fenwick & West also advised on the transaction.
The deal reporting on this platform is based on the information received from law firms, and therefore, some details may be missing/incomplete. If your firm has not been credited for this deal, write to us at chanchal.makhija@thegreymatter.co.in mentioning your firm’s name, lawyers involved (including designation) and client represented.
