Ronnie Screwvala’s edtech unicorn upGrad raised $210 million in funds from ETS Global, Bodhi Tree and Kaizen Management Advisors where family offices of Bharti Airtel, Narotam Sekhsaria (Ambuja Cements), and Artisan Investments (Lakshmi Mittal) along with existing investors Temasek, IFC and IIFL also participated.
Unacademy competes with Coursera, Simplilearn, and Udemy in providing upskilling courses to college students and working professionals. Even as offices and colleges open and the segment slows, upGrad claims to be bullish, citing a programme completion rate of more than 80%. It claims that repeats and referrals account for 40% of the company’s total revenue. It should be noted that upGrad intends to expand its workforce from 4,800 to 7,600 people. It will also hire 170+ full-time faculty members, 1,600+ teachers, and over 5K on-contract coaches and mentors.
