Edtech Unicorn upGrad Raises $210 Million In Latest Funding 

Edtech unicorn, upGrad, has raised $210 million in the latest funding round that has been conducted by prominent investors and family offices, including ETS Global, Bodhi Tree, Singapore’s Kaizen Management Advisors, Bharti Airtel, Narotam Sekhsaria Family Office, Lakshmi Mittal’s Artisan Investments, along with existing investors Temasek, IFC and IFL. 

upGrad was founded by Ronnie Screwvala with Mayank Kumar and Phalgun Kompalli in 2015. It helps aspirants in different segments ━  from test preparation and study abroad to undergraduate degrees and campus courses in 250 universities. It covers finance, law, business and software. 

With this investment, the startup aims to grow and expand its team from 4,800 to 7,600 in the next three months. The company is planning to include 170 full-time faculty members, 1,600 teachers and over 5,000 on-contact coaches and mentors in the team. The founder group also invested $ 12.5 million in this round to maintain over 50% ownership in the edtech startup. 

“Higher edtech will be on the rise for the next 4 to 5 decades. upGrad, in the last 12 months, has re-shaped itself to be the most integrated company in this space with career opportunities for college learners and working professionals from 18 to 58. It will be a lifelong learning partner for millions in the coming years. We have always been very capital efficient while growing 100% year-on-year, and hope to retain that discipline,” said upGrad Co-founders Ronnie Screwvala and Mayank Kumar in a joint statement while commenting on the fundraise.

This announcement comes after other edtech startups like BYJU’s-owned WhiteHat Jr., Unacademy, Vedantu, Lido Learning, and others have laid-off employees in the last few months. 

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upGrad has achieved much in a short period. It has acquired New-Delhi based online learning institute Harappa Education and Bangalore-based recruitment and staffing firm WOLVES. The startup has also launched five new offices in Delhi, Jabalpur, Kolhapur, Kottayam and Pune.  

The startup has over 3 million learners across 100 countries and partnered with 300 universities.