Programming platform CodeChef hives off from Unacademy amid funding crunch

CodeChef, a competitive programming platform for students and professional programmers, owned by edtech major Unacademy, announced on Wednesday that it has been hived off from its parent company, citing macroeconomic conditions.

The company will now function as an independent business run by its current team. Unacademy will, however, hold a 30 per cent stake in the business as an investor and has also infused some initial capital that will help it function for the next 12-18 months.

“In the past, we never really focused on the financial viability of CodeChef, but being generously supported by Directi, and later by Unacademy, allowed us to keep doing our work without worrying about the financials,” the company said in a Twitter thread addressing the development.

“But recently, due to the larger global economic slowdown, it has become clear that this cannot continue, and we need to find ways to sustain ourselves,” the Tweet read.

Unacademy took over CodeChef in June 2020.

“We are excited to see CodeChef operate as an independent company, and we are proud to have played a role in its growth and success,” said Gaurav Munjal, Co-Founder and CEO, Unacademy Group. “We remain committed to our larger mission of democratizing education, and we look forward to supporting CodeChef as an investor such that it continues to innovate and provide high-quality programming education to students around the world.”

Till the company’s finances improve, it will cut back on costs. Further to this, it has put its ‘Cook-Offs’, ‘Lunchtimes’, and ‘Long contests’ services on hold. “Starters will continue as they are with some of them now being rated for all,” the company said.

“These are exciting times as the way we learn is going to completely change with the developments in AI. We know that 90 per cent of the users registering on CodeChef have ‘learn and practice’ as their primary goal and we hope to become a much more holistic learning platform for students to gather and experience learning,” said Hrishikesh Kelkar, Business Head, CodeChef.