Edtech platform upGrad has made its first external fund-raise since inception in 2015. On Monday, it announced it has raised $120 million (about Rs 897.3 crore) from Singapore-based Temasek. Since its inception , upGrad has been 100 percent owned, funded, and run by its co-founders as a capital-efficient business.
The education major plans to use the fresh capital to further strengthen its team, scale its global market operations and bolster its technology and product capabilities, a statement said. The company will also pursue merger and acquisition (M&A) opportunities, expand graduate and post-graduate degree portfolio in India, and scale up operations to achieve its $2 billion revenue goal by 2026, it added.
In a joint statement, co-founders Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar and Phalgun Kompalli said, "This capital will further fuel our commitment towards global expansion as well as deeper India penetration, as we march forward with our goal of making India the teaching capital of the world."
Credit Suisse acted as the exclusive financial advisor to upGrad, and Rajaram Legal acted as legal advisor.
upGrad is South Asia's largest online higher edtech company offering more than 100 courses in collaboration with top-notch global universities like Duke Corporate Education (US), Michigan State University (US), Liverpool John Moores University (UK), Deakin Business School (Australia), Swiss School of Business Management, (Geneva), IIT Madras (India) and IIM Kozhikode (India).
The platform has impacted over 1 million total registered learners in over 50 countries. The edtech space has seen strong growth globally with the COVID-19 pandemic serving as an inflection point.
upGrad has been ranked No 1 in the LinkedIn ‘Top Startups India 2020' list.
While a number of players have raised fresh funding from investors, consolidation is also being seen in the industry with deals like Unacademy acquiring PrepLadder for USD 50 million and Byju''s buying WhiteHat Jr for USD 300 million and Aakash Educational Services for nearly USD 1 billion.
Last year, upGrad also acquired The Gate Academy (TGA) and Rekrut India.
