Meet doctor who cracked UPSC exam with AIR 18, then resigned as IAS officer to build Rs 28000 crore company, is now set to exit firm due to...

Roman Saini, one of the co-founders of Unacademy, is making headlines again as he and fellow co-founder Gaurav Munjal are set to exit the company to focus on their new venture, AirLearn. Hemesh Singh, the third co-founder, had already exited Unacademy in June 2024.

Unacademy was a YouTube channel that later turned into an ed-tech company, headquartered at Bengaluru. Here, many educators started teaching and sharing high-quality educational content for a variety of competitive exams, such as UPSC, NEET, JEE, and GATE. The Unacademy app was launched in 2015. The startup is among the Edtech Unicorn, gaining $150 millions.

Roman Saini hails from Rajasthan. His mother is a homemaker while his father works as an engineer. He was a bright student from the very beginning. Roman cleared one of India's most difficult medical entrance exams, the AIIMS, at the age of 16. He completed his MBBS by the age of 21 and began working at the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre (NDDTC) when he was just 18.

Roman's objectives, however, went beyond medicine.  He desired to contribute more to society.  He witnessed the dearth of basic amenities in a Haryana village where he was working as a medical intern.  He was profoundly impacted by this and was inspired to think more broadly. He made the decision to sit for the UPSC Civil Services Examination at that point.

Roman became an IAS officer at the age of 22 after passing the UPSC exam. In Madhya Pradesh, he was a district collector. He felt that there was still more he wanted to achieve, though, even after realising this ambition. Roman took a risk in 2015 when he chose to start something new and resigned his job at IAS. He co-founded the online learning platform Unacademy with his pals Gaurav Munjal and Hemesh Singh. Their objective was straightforward: to provide everyone with access to high-quality education, particularly those preparing for challenging tests like the UPSC.

Peak Valuation (2021–2022): After several investment rounds, Unacademy attained a peak valuation of USD 3.44 billion in March 2022.  Current Valuation (2025): According to recent sources, Unacademy and Allen Career Institute are in purchase negotiations. The proposed deal would value Unacademy at USD 800 million.  This represents a substantial drop from its highest valuation.  Roman Saini made Rs 88 lakh a year as of 2022, while Hemesh Singh and co-founder Gaurav Munjal made Rs 1.19 crore and Rs 1.58 crore, respectively.  Roman's experience demonstrates that you can alter lives, including your own, if you have a clear goal and a strong will.