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“Unacademy is getting acquired by upGrad today. It has been one helluva journey since that stroll in LBSNAA when I was on the phone with Gaurav Munjal and decided to quit IAS and build Unacademy,” Saini wrote in a post on X on Tuesday.

Saini, who had moved from the civil services to entrepreneurship, recalled the early days of Unacademy and how online teaching gradually became a mainstream part of education. Saini and Munjal went on to build Unacademy together, after their LBSNAA conversation set the idea in motion and Saini decided to leave the IAS.‘BEING AN EDUCATOR WAS STILL LOOKED DOWN UPON’

“When we started posting videos on YouTube, very few smart people were teaching online. Being an educator was still looked down upon,” Saini said.

He recalled personally reaching out to educators in the early days.

“I remember that within the first month itself I must have called 200 people to teach online,” he wrote.

What followed, according to Saini, was much bigger than the founders had imagined.

“This led to a revolution bigger than we had imagined. Suddenly we were doing millions of views, which eventually became billions,” he said.

Saini also highlighted the role Unacademy played in bringing educators into online teaching.

“There are only very few top educators in India today who haven't at some point taught on Unacademy,” he wrote, adding that the platform’s “impact” on the education ecosystem was “immense”.

The scale of the platform became particularly visible during the Covid period.

For him, however, the numbers were only one part of the story.

He recalled an encounter with a CISF officer during a flight who recognised him and thanked him for making online learning possible.

“He thanked me because he could study online and prepare for his govt. exam while still on the job, and because going to an offline coaching centre was not an option for him,” Saini wrote.

“Unacademy has made countless such success stories possible,” he added.‘SLEEPLESS NIGHTS, REJECTIONS AND CONSTANT FIREFIGHTING’

Saini also opened up about the difficult moments behind Unacademy’s growth.

He recalled staying up all night making videos when the platform’s views were down.

“I remember once being up all night making videos just because our views were down and I didn't want a month where we were not growing,” he said.

There were also moments when things did not go according to plan. Saini remembered travelling with Munjal to China to meet an investor who did not even turn up for the meeting.

“Whether it's the sleepless nights, or the rejections, or the constant firefighting during good times and bad, it is a journey to remember,” he wrote.

Looking back, Saini said the opportunity to build something that affected so many people was rare.

“Very few people get the opportunity to create the kind of impact that we created. And I am proud of the impact we have created through Unacademy,” he said.

Now, with Unacademy becoming part of upGrad, Saini said the focus would be on what comes next.

“And now, as a part of upGrad, we are looking forward to creating an even bigger dent in the universe with Ronnie Screwvala,” he wrote.

Saini ended his post by thanking his friends and family, particularly his wife Spriha Choubey, as well as Munjal, whom he described as his “co-founder and friend”.

And for Saini, it all goes back to that conversation at LBSNAA — the point at which an IAS career gave way to an idea that would eventually become one of India's most recognisable online education platforms.- EndsPublished By: Mridusmita DekaPublished On: Sep 1, 2026 17:30 ISTRead | This man cleared AIIMS at 16, UPSC at 22, then built an edtech giantRead | IIT, IIM, IAS to loneliness: Divya Mittal asks who teaches students to be happy