upGrad Appoints JioStar's Mukesh Mundra as CFO Ahead of Unacademy Acquisition

Edtech firm upGrad has appointed Mukesh Mundra as its chief financial officer (CFO), the company said in a statement. Mundra will oversee finance and administration functions, including financial strategy, business partnering, corporate governance and scale-building.

He brings over 26 years of finance leadership experience across media, telecom, manufacturing and consumer businesses. Most recently, he served as head of finance at JioStar. Prior to that, he held senior roles at Idea Cellular, where he was involved in key strategic milestones including the acquisition of Spice Communications and the formation of the Indus Towers joint venture. He has also worked with Grasim Industries and Anand Rathi Group.

"upGrad is at an exciting stage of growth as it continues to shape the future of lifelong learning and workforce development. The opportunity to build financially resilient and scalable systems while supporting innovation and business transformation is incredibly exciting," Mundra said.

Ronnie Screwvala, co-founder and chairperson of upGrad, said Mundra's experience across large-scale consumer businesses made him a valuable addition to the leadership team. "His strategic understanding of finance, governance, and business transformation will play a critical role as we continue scaling our global operations and strengthening our long-term growth roadmap," Screwvala said.

Unacademy Deal

The appointment comes as upGrad advances its proposed acquisition of rival edtech platform Unacademy. The deal has entered an advanced stage of regulatory review, with both companies submitting an application to the Competition Commission of India earlier this month. The transaction is expected to be structured as a complete share-swap arrangement.

Unacademy, which had peaked at a valuation of $3.4 billion in 2021, is set to be acquired at a significantly lower valuation. Multiple reports estimate the current transaction value at between $218 million and $400 million.

Ahead of the acquisition, Sumit Jain, co-founder of Unacademy and chief executive of its test preparation business, stepped down from his role last week. June 30 will be his last working day in an executive capacity.