Thomas BabychanKnowledgeHut UpGrad, an online ed-tech company under UpGrad, is reportedly planning to make the acquisition of several smaller EdTech companies which focuses on improving skills and experience.
KnowledgeHut UpGrad, which was founded in 2011 focuses on providing short-term online courses which will help employees to reskill and upskill themselves in their areas of service or profession. It was acquired by UpGrad in August last year.
Reports suggest that KnowledgeHut is eyeing two to three companies in the area of EdTech services. The targetted companies also include a UX training firm which reportedly has a valuation of more than 5 crore rupees.
KnowledgeHut based in Bengaluru currently has learners from more than 70 countries around the world and is planning to increase its presence even more by completing these acquisitions in the next two to three months.
Subrahmanyam Reddy who is the founder and chief executive officer of KnowledgeHut UpGrad said to the media that the company is planning to invest and acquire a stake in entities which specialises in the particular field. The ability of the acquired company to integrate with platforms of KnowledgeHut UpGrad would also be a very crucial factor in the process of acquisitions.
While KnowledgeHut was being acquired by UpGrad in August 2021, the reskilling EdTech had an annual revenue run rate of 10 million US dollars. Within one year of acquisition, the annual revenue of KnowledgeHut increased four times to a whopping 40 million dollars.
According to CEO KnowledgeHut UpGrad is now targetting to achieve an annual revenue run rate of 150 million dollars by the end of the current financial year.
The company currently focuses on providing courses in Agile Methodology, AI, Financial, Project Management, Software Testing, Big Data, Cloud Computing and IT Services management to name a few. Boot camps for Data Engineering, Front end developers, back-end developers, AI engineers, and Data analysts are also available.
The planned acquisitions are expected to help the EdTech company to venture more into providing upskill and reskilling courses in cybersecurity, soft skills, IT, cloud and big data. Entities providing courses and training services under other areas of expertise are also under the radar of KnowledgeHut UpGrad.
Subrahmanyam Reddy told The New Indian Express that it is planning to achieve a 150 million dollar goal by focussing on launching new courses and boot camps in the current year. The company is also planning to increase its workforce from present 500 to 800 by the end of this fiscal.
About the existing cash crunch faced by start-ups in the Indian startup ecosystem, Reddy said that KnowledgeHut UpGrad is planning to achieve constant growth for now and not long-term profitability. According to him, the funding winter and cash crunch will continue in the Indian startup ecosystem for a few more months and only entities which have focused on constant growth will be able to thrive under these dynamic economic conditions.
He also added that as the technology and labour market are evolving, more and more graduates are being recruited by employers. Such a situation will increase demand for upskilling these newly recruited graduates and KnowledgeHut is planning to make use of that opportunity.
Other than short-term courses and boot camps, the company is also providing services to enterprises and corporations which would enable KnowledgeHut to help their employees reskill and upskill themselves in large numbers.