Meet Roman Saini, cracked AIIMS entrance exam at 16, IAS at 22, built Rs 26,000 crore company after quitting as IAS..

Unacademy is currently one of the top ed-tech companies in India and the company has seen phenomenal success in the last 5-6 years. The YouTube channel of engineer-turned-businessman Gaurav Munjal served as the foundation for this commercial empire but one person who also deserves credit for making Unacademy a Rs 26000 crore worth company is doctor and former IAS officer Roman Saini.

Who is Roman Saini?

Roman Saini is without doubt one of the sharpest minds in India. Roman Saini succeeded in clearing the prestigious AIIMS admissions test when he was 16 years old. He then cracked the UPSC exam and became an IAS officer at the age of 22. Roman Saini was assigned to Madhya Pradesh as a district collector.

Roman Saini, however, was not satisfied by becoming an IAS officer and wanted to become an entrepreneur and in 2015, he co-founded Unacademy with Gaurav Munjal and Hemesh Singh after leaving IAS officer's post.  The trio launched created Sorting Hat Technologies, which is the parent organisation of Unacademy.

Unacademy helps thousands of IAS aspirants prepare for UPSC exams through YouTube. The idea behind Unacademy was to provide a platform for UPSC coaching classes that doesn’t require students to spend lakhs of rupees. 

Gaurav Munjal took home Rs. 1.58 crore as CEO of Unacademy in 2022. Hemesh Singh made Rs 1.19 crore in pay, while Roman Saini was paid Rs 88 lakhs.