April 26, 2021: This Monday, upGrad –South Asia’s largest online higher education company, today announced that it has raised US$120 million from Temasek, a Singapore-headquartered global investment company, making this the first external fund-raise by the EdTech major.
Since its inception in 2015, upGrad has been 100 per cent funded, run and owned by its co-founders as a capital-efficient business. upGrad further aims to utilize fresh capital to further strengthen its team, bolster its technology and product capabilities, scale its global market operations, expand graduate and post-graduate degree portfolio in India, and scaling up operations to achieve its $2 billion revenue goal by 2026. All these strategically implemented plans are directed towards reinforcing upGrad’s position as a global higher-EdTech leader emerging from India.
The company’s co-founder Ronnie Screwvala said: “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.”
In December 2020, upGrad acquired Rekrut India, the recruitment and staffing solutions company. This 100% acquisition marked an unprecedented M&A (merger and acquisition) in India, where an EdTech company acquired a recruitment firm.