Indian EdTech giant, UpGrad on Monday completed another round of fundraising which enabled the company to raise nearly 210 million dollars.
Founded by Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, Phalgun Kompalli, and, Ravijot Chugh in 2015, UpGrad is one of the largest online education platforms in India which offers specialised courses in IT, Data Science, Management and Technology to name a few.
The latest round of funding was led by educational services companies such as ETS Global and Bodhi Tree.
Singapore-based Kaizan Management Advisors and family offices of Bharati Airtel, ACC and Arcelor Mittal were also involved in the round.
Temasek, IFC and IIFL who are existing investors also participated in raising 200+ million dollars at a crucial time when major EdTech companies in the indian online education landscape are facing a financial crunch.
Bloomberg News stated in a report that the valuation of UpGrad is now standing at 2.25 billion dollars after the latest round of funding.
Ronnie Screwvala and Mayank Kumar, co-founders of UpGrad, said in a statement that a reskilling revolution was undergoing all around the world in which UpGrad plays a very important role. The statement said that for the last five years, the EdTech company has been working hard along with its 4000+ employees to take advantage of the reskilling revolution.
The statement also said that, with more opportunities to come in future, the ed tech industry in India is going to grow multifold in the next 4 – 5 decades in which UpGrad would play a very crucial role. The company would continue to build itself as an integrated platform through which anyone who wishes to study can do so and increase their job prospectus using the offerings provided by UpGrad.
Co-founders added to their statement that the company has been achieving 100% growth on a year-to-year basis for a long time and that it wishes to continue that pattern of growth.
Increasing workforce
UpGrad in a statement said that the workforce of the EdTech company would be increased from the current 4800 to 7600 within three months. The new hires will include full-time faculty members and teachers. Coaches and mentors would also be recruited by the company on a contract basis.
By the end of the recruitment phase, UpGrad would be one of the largest EdTech companies in the world with the highest number of full-time faculty.
