Serial loss making or serial pivoting, that is the question we are asking today, can AirLearn redeem what Unacademy lost? 

Before we dive into the high-profile exit of Unacademy’s founders and their next big bet – AirLearn, let us zoom out and revisit a stubborn reality of India’s much-hyped startup ecosystem: a staggering number of unicorns in the country are simply not profitable.This despite being branded as a global hub of innovation.

A recent Moneycontrol report revealed that only 23 out of 100 unicorn startups in India are in the green. Another analysis by Business Today placed that number even lower – just 17 out of 80 with available data. For a country that boasts of its “startup boom,” the sustainability of these ventures remains deeply questionable.

The Profitability Problem No One Wants to Talk About Or Question

Why do most Indian startups even those with significant market traction, marquee investors, and billion-dollar valuations remain loss-making?

Despite thousands of crores in revenue, despite brand presence, customer acquisition, and large-scale hiring, the bottom line for most is bathed in red and losses stretch on for years. Then comes the IPO hype, often used not to reward long-term performance, but as an exit valve. The path to IPO often becomes an exit strategy for early investors, while retail investors and employees bear the brunt of continued financial underperformance.

Hence, if users are paying for services and market share is being celebrated then why are these companies still bleeding money?

The answer may lie in how the very idea of a startup has evolved or perhaps, eroded. Earlier, a startup was a vehicle to solve real problems with innovative models. Post-2015, however, the goalpost moved. The startup became synonymous with one word: growth. Not value creation. Not sustainability. Just rapid, investor-fueled expansion.

This was further amplified by the rise of digital marketing – PPC campaigns, SEO blitzes, influencer promotions. Scale-first, profit-later became a mantra. It’s eerily similar to the dot-com bubble era of the late ’90s, where banner ads and online buzz created bloated valuations with little substance.

Enter, The Unacademy Fallout
That brings us to the latest headline-making exit and brings us to Unacademy, a company that rode the edtech wave hard during the pandemic, only to now find itself in a painful reset.

Founded in 2015 by Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini, and Hemesh Singh, Unacademy started as a YouTube channel shortly after Munjal and Singh (sold their earlier venture, Flatchat, to Commonfloor); it went on to become one of India’s most prominent edtech platforms, eventually valued at $3.4 billion at its peak.

But that momentum didn’t last with the pandemic tailwinds fading, reality set in. The company struggled with profitability, company attempted to pivot to offline coaching centres, entering a more capital-heavy arena dominated by the likes of Byju’s-owned Aakash and PhysicsWallah, which itself is now eyeing a ₹35,000- 40,000 crore IPO.

Reports suggest that Munjal wasn’t keen on this brick-and-mortar strategy, a sentiment that ultimately led to internal friction and the decision to move on.

The offline shift came at a cost:

Multiple rounds of layoffs, senior-level exits, including COO Vivek Sinha and CFO Subramanian Ramachandran.

A failed acquisition deal with Allen Career Institute and an an ongoing battle to stay relevant in a shrinking funding environment.

According to FY24 data, Unacademy reported operating revenue of ₹840 crore (down 7% YoY), and narrowed its net loss to ₹631 crore, a 62% improvement driven mostly by cost-cutting and layoffs, not organic growth.

Despite claims that 70% of offline centres are on track to profitability in 2025, questions remain about whether the business has truly stabilized or merely been repackaged.

Leadership Vacuum and Strategic Drift
Soon reports surfaced that Gaurav Munjal along with Roman Saini no longer interested in scaling the offline coaching model, a core part of Unacademy’s strategy.

Eventually, the inevitable happened: Munjal stepped down as CEO and Roman Saini exited from an active role, Hemesh Singh had already left in mid-2024. A new CEO, Sumit Jain, was appointed, himself a founder who had earlier sold his startup, Opentalk, to Unacademy

That leaves us with several fundamental questions that go beyond just this one startup and raises a few uncomfortable but necessary questions:

For a company that pivoted from YouTube education to test prep, then to offline coaching, and now is spawning an entirely different venture, it’s fair to ask:

What exactly was the founders’ long-term vision?
This erratic trajectory suggests not evolution, but confusion. A startup may experiment in its early years, but Unacademy is nearly a decade old. If clarity about the business model is still lacking, what were the founders doing until now?

If Unacademy, despite raising $880 million, high-profile board members, and massive user base still couldn’t sustain itself, does this mark an execution failure by the founding team?

With boardrooms stacked with top names like SoftBank, General Atlantic, and Peak XV Partners, why was there little visible pushback or course correction before the damage escalated?

Is this an exit or a quiet admission of failure?

Even as the founders are now pivoting to something entirely new. Does this signify that they’ve exhausted ideas and energy at Unacademy? If yes, then what are the implications for AirLearn, the new venture they now champion?

Enter AirLearn, A Fresh Bet, Familiar Questions

For those who are wondering so what are Munjal and Saini up to next?

Enter AirLearn, a consumer-facing language learning app, now being spun off from Unacademy into a separate entity.

AirLearn is pitched as a sleek, structured alternative to Duolingo, focusing on grammar, real-life dialogues, spaced repetition, and motivational gamification.

As per Munjal’s own updates:

AirLearn has 70,000 daily users

Nearly 300,000 monthly active users

17,500 paid subscribers

A $2 million bookings run rate

The app is gaining traction in Western markets, especially the US, UK, and Germany and offers 13 language courses, with Spanish, French, and Korean being the most popular. Munjal has not held back in promoting AirLearn aggressively either, going as far as taking shots at Duolingo, calling it “over-gamified” and questioning whether it’s a streak app or a real learning tool.

But here again, the same caution flags apply, where it gets interesting and worrying.

—Why launch something new when the previous venture hasn’t even stabilized?
—–Is this shift a strategic evolution based on learnings from Unacademy?
——-Or is it a new coat of paint on a still-untested foundation, with the same cycle of user acquisition, marketing-heavy growth, and delayed profitability?

Hence, is AirLearn the next Duolingo or just another VC-fueled experiment riding on media buzz? Is this startup truly solving a problem, or repeating the same hypergrowth-first, profit-later cycle?

Red Flags for Investors, Lessons for Founders
The trend of serial loss-making followed by serial pivoting should no longer be brushed aside as mere entrepreneurial experimentation. It raises governance concerns, accountability questions, and casts doubt on how seriously Indian startup founders view long-term execution.

Investors too, must reflect: Are they chasing charisma over capability? Are they enabling visionaries — or validating escape artists?

The Last Bit, Can AirLearn Be the Saviour?

AirLearn may have real potential. Its global-first positioning, focused UX, and fast user traction suggest that it is more than just a side project. But that doesn’t negate the reality that it comes on the heels of an unfinished, turbulent legacy at Unacademy.

AirLearn may genuinely offer something innovative. But it’s hard to ignore the pattern: when startups fail to meet profitability goals, founders don’t always fix the ship, they often jump to build another one.

Therefore, this trend of serial pivots from one loss-making venture to another should no longer be seen as entrepreneurial spirit alone. It should spark serious investor introspection, tighter governance, and accountability frameworks.

Can a fresh start wash away years of drift and underperformance?

Perhaps. But redemption must be earned, not merely rebranded.