Ayush Bansal
Image: YourStory
upGrad Rekrut, a 100% subsidiary of online higher education platform major upgrade, on Thursday, announced it has acquired recruitment and staffing firm Wolves India, for an undisclosed sum.
The Bengaluru-based Wolves India specializes in placing high-quality tech talent across startups, along with mid and large-sized organizations in India and overseas.
“While with upgrade Rekrut, we saw our learners receiving record-breaking CTCs during FY22, the joining of Wolves India will give us an edge in the tech ecosystem,” said Mayank Kumar, Co-founder, and MD, upgrade.
According to upgrade, Bengaluru-based WOLVES specializes in placing tech talent across startups, along with mid and large-sized organizations in India and overseas. The seven-year-old recruitment firm has closed over 5,000 placements till now in technology and product roles, upgrade added.
WOLVES India said it will continue to operate independently under the leadership of its Founder and Director, Raghu S.
“We are thrilled to welcome Raghu and his team on board to partner with upgrade Rekrut to offer an enhanced placement portfolio, thus enabling upgrade learners with the tech jobs of tomorrow. This aligns with our ambition of becoming the global talent superpower in the next few years,” said Ajay Shah, Managing Founder, and Husain Tinwala – Co-founder of upgrade Rekrut.
upgrade entered the unicorn club with a $1.2 billion valuation in August last year. Last month, it reported raising $225 million more at a valuation of $2.25 billion.
upGrad’s other Bid
With the acquisition of WOLVES India, the upgrade has completed three acquisitions in the last seven months. The edtech startup raised $225 Mn a month ago, taking its valuation to well over $2.25 Bn.
While the upgrade is also looking to raise a further $100 Mn, the edtech startup has been investing the funds it raises to expand inorganically in other verticals via acquisitions.
Interestingly, the upgrades modus operandi when it picks up startups is to engage in a share-swap deal. In that way, it has acquired two startups, Gurugram-based higher education startup Talentedge and the International School of Engineering (INSOFE). The two companies received shares in upgrade worth $27 Mn and $33 Mn, respectively.
upgrade also picked up enterprise learning and development startup Work Better in early January 2022 to expand into B2B learning offerings.
Since January 2020, the upgrade has acquired nine startups including Gate Academy, Impartus, KnowledgeHut, Global Study Partners, Talentedge, and INSOFE among others.