upGrad, South Asia’s largest online higher education company, today announced that it has raised USD 120 million from Temasek, a global investment company headquartered in Singapore. This is the first external funding raised by the edtech major. Since its founding six years ago in 2015, upGrad has been 100% owned, funded, and run by its co-founders as a capital-efficient business.
Investment Plan of Recent Fund by upGrad
upGrad plans to use the fresh capital to further strengthen its team, scale its global market operations, bolster its technology and product capabilities, pursue M&A opportunities, expand graduate and post-graduate degree portfolio in India, and scale up operations to achieve its USD 2 billion revenue goal by 2026, thereby reinforcing its position as a global higher-edtech leader emerging from India.
upGrad Co-Founders Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar and Phalgun Kompalli said in a joint statement:
“We welcome Temasek in our mission to power career success for each and every member of the global workforce as their trusted LifeLongLearning partner and drive meaningful career outcomes. 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.
About upGrad
upGrad is South Asia’s largest online higher edtech company offering 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), IIM Kozhikode (India), and others. Founded in 2015, the international edtech leader has impacted over 1 million total registered learners in over 50+ countries across the world.
With an 85% program completion rate, which otherwise is 3-6% for other MOOCs, outcome-based learning approach, industry-relevant curriculum, finest university credentials, strong mentorship, and steadfast career support, upGrad has solidified its position to command an ARPU of INR 2.5 lakhs – highest in the Indian online education sector, which indeed bears testimony to its robust model. upGrad differentiates itself in driving meaningful career outcomes for its learners, in terms of career transition, acceleration, or elevating professional confidence.
upGrad has ranked No.1 in the LinkedIn Top Startups India 2020 list. This is the third time in a row that upGrad has been featured in the LinkedIn Top Startup list after 2018 and 2019. It is also amongst GSV Global EdTech 50, has been ranked amongst the Top 50 in the FT Asia-Pacific High-Growth Companies 2021 and has won the title of ET Best Education Brand 2020.
Additionally, in 2020, the company won several accolades including, the title of ‘Best Communication and Teaching Platform’ in the Education Innovation Awards by Entrepreneur India, ‘Takshila Award’ by the 3AI Pinnacle Awards for its programs in AI, Analytics and Data Sciences, the ‘Best Corporate Training Programme’ by the 10th Annual Indian Education Awards and received the award under ‘Innovative Initiative’ for its Android App at the mBillionth Awards.
