Table of Contents
- A Liquidity Window in Leaner Times
- A Franchise Pivot and Faded Valuations
- Table Space’s IPO Calculus
- A Crowded Market Awaits
A Liquidity Window in Leaner Times
In a subdued funding climate for India’s once-booming edtech sector, Unacademy has announced a Rs 50 crore (about $6 million) employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) buyback, offering a measure of liquidity to staff at a time when startup valuations are under pressure.
The program, disclosed by co-founder Gaurav Munjal on social media, is expected to generate substantial payouts for dozens of employees. According to the company, eight employees are likely to receive more than Rs 1 crore each, 17 may earn upwards of Rs 50 lakh, and 38 could see gains exceeding Rs 10 lakh.
In his statement, Mr. Munjal acknowledged that the company’s current valuation is “significantly lower” than during its last fundraise but said the board had carved out a dedicated cash pool for employees. Eligible current and former staff will be contacted in the coming weeks.
The buyback comes with caveats. Unacademy recently opened a one-time, 30-day window for former employees to exercise vested stock options, while emphasizing that preference shareholders retain priority over equity holders. In effect, employees are being given liquidity but at a recalibrated price reflective of a cooler market.
A Franchise Pivot and Faded Valuations
The ESOP initiative is unfolding amid a broader restructuring at Unacademy, which rose to prominence during the pandemic as online learning platforms experienced explosive demand. As classrooms reopened and funding tightened, the company has been forced into a strategic reset.
Earlier this year, Unacademy announced plans to shift from company-owned offline learning centers to a franchise-based model, a move intended to reduce operating costs and improve unit economics. The pivot underscores how India’s edtech firms are adjusting to post-pandemic realities, where growth-at-all-costs has given way to profitability and sustainability.
The company has also explored consolidation. Discussions with upGrad over a potential acquisition were ultimately called off after both sides failed to align on valuation expectations a telling signal of how dramatically pricing benchmarks have shifted since the funding boom of 2020 and 2021.
For employees who were once promised outsized paper wealth, the buyback may represent both closure and compromise: liquidity today, albeit at a lower mark than previously imagined.
Table Space’s IPO Calculus
While Unacademy retrenches, a different kind of ambition is unfolding in India’s flexible workspace market. Table Space, a managed office solutions provider founded in 2017 by Amit Banerji, is preparing for an initial public offering valued at up to Rs 1,000 crore in fresh issuance.
Ahead of the offering, the company has secured approval to raise Rs 200 crore in a pre-IPO private placement, an amount equivalent to roughly 20 percent of the proposed fresh issue. The structure suggests a total new-share component near Rs 1,000 crore, alongside an offer-for-sale segment that will allow existing shareholders to partially exit.
Table Space reports a portfolio exceeding 10 million square feet across seven Indian cities, serving about 290 clients. Financially, it has shown momentum: revenue rose 50 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,360 crore in fiscal 2025, up from Rs 906 crore the previous year. Excluding exceptional items, profit nearly tripled to Rs 14.6 crore.
The company did, however, report an exceptional item of Rs 1,568 crore tied to a non-cash fair valuation loss on certain compulsorily convertible preference shares, which are designed to convert into equity ahead of a liquidation event such as an IPO.
A Crowded Market Awaits
Table Space’s public debut would place it among a growing cohort of listed workspace providers, including WeWork India Management, Smartworks Coworking Spaces, IndiQube Spaces and Awfis Space Solutions.
The flex-workspace sector, once viewed as an ancillary service to corporate real estate, has matured into a competitive and publicly traded arena. Investors will be watching closely to see whether Table Space’s growth trajectory and India’s broader appetite for flexible offices can sustain the next chapter.
Together, Unacademy’s buyback and Table Space’s IPO ambitions capture a pivotal moment for India’s startup ecosystem: one balancing recalibration with resolve.
Edited by- Tanishka Chauhan
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