Online learning platform Unacademy on Tuesday said it has acquired Chandigarh-based startup PrepLadder for $50 million (around Rs 375 crore) in a cash and stock deal as it looks to expand its presence in the country.

Unacademy, which traces its start as a YouTube channel of Gaurav Munjal back in 2010, had raised a capital of $110 million last February from investors such as General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital and Facebook.

SAIF Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Steadview Capital and Blume Ventures are among the prominent investors besides individuals such as Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy and Udaan co-founder Sujeet Kumar.

PrepLadder, which offers preparatory help for medical entrance exams, has a subscriber base of over 86,000. For Unacademy, which itself has around 30 million learners and 10,000 educators on its platform, it is the fourth major acquisition having taken over platforms such as Kreatryx, Wifistudy and Codechef.

“Bringing PrepLadder on board will play a strategic role for Unacademy in the medical entrance examinations category. The exponential growth in Unacademy’s subscriber base is a testament to increasing demand for online education,” said Munjal, co-founder and CEO of Unacademy.

In the last three months during the lockdown period, the learning platform has accelerated its growth as educational institutions across the country remained closed to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

The company said it has recorded a 100 per cent increase in its paid subscriber base during the period and the monthly watch time minutes has increased to a high of over 1 billion.

The company also said that over 525,000 learners have attempted mock tests on its platform for competitive exams such as UPSC, NEET-PG and CAT.

The edtech startup sector has been buzzing this year with Tiger Global reportedly investing USD 200 million in learning platform Byju’s.