The list of unicorn startups in India is getting longer and longer as there is another homegrown ed-tech company that entered the unicorn club this week. UpGrad is the 21st unicorn of this year alone.
UpGrad has raised $185mn led by Temasek($120mn), World Bank’s International Finance Corporation($40mn), and India Infoline Finance($25mn) at a valuation of $1.2bn which was $600mn only four months ago.
The six-year-old company raised external funds for the first time in April with a $120mn investment from Temasek. It garnered another $40mn from IFC as part of the same round.
The Mumbai-based higher ed-tech startup was founded by Ronnie Screwvala, also a Bollywood producer, Mayank Kumar, and Phalgun Kompalli.
Earlier this May, UpGrad acquired Impartus, a leading video-enabled learning solutions provider and KnowledgeHut, last week to expand its footprint across the globe.
Another interesting thing to be noted here is that the company has set aside another $250mn for future mergers and acquisitions.
The latest financial statements are yet to be released. However, it recorded a 90% jump in its operating revenue in FY20 but recorded losses of Rs.79cr and Rs.43cr for the year before that.
The online higher education and up-skilling platform provide industry-relevant 100 professional programs designed and delivered in collaboration with global educational institutions for users across 50 countries.
The founder group still holds more than 70% of the company and there are further anticipations of raising another $400mn in the coming days at a valuation of $4bn.
Interestingly Temasek had also led a $440mn round announced by Unacademy earlier this month at a valuation of $3.4bn.
UpGrad will also be facing competition by the Byju’s as it has also forayed into the higher education and upskilling segment with its acquisition of Great Learning for $600mn last month.
