Ronnie Screwvala's edtech startup upGrad a unicorn; valuation tops $1.2 bn

Closes a series of raises from Temasek, IFC and IIFL, mopping up a total of $185 million

Ronnie Screwvala-founded edtech start-up upGrad, said that it has closed a series of raises from Temasek, IFC (International Finance Corporation, a sister organization of the World Bank and member of the World Bank Group), and IIFL. It has raised a total of $185 million at a value of $1.2 billion, making it the newest member of the coveted unicorn club.

The funding would help upGrad compete with players such as Byju’s, SoftBank backed Unacademy, Vedantu, Simplilearn and Amazon Academy.

“We are very focussed on our path to being in the top 3-5 companies globally in edtech and serving the 1 billion workforce across the age group of 18 to 60 years,” said Ronnie Screwvala, chairperson and co-founder, upGrad.  “We are pleased with the investor interest ever since we opened up for a fundraise, and had our maiden raise from Temasek, followed by IFC and IIFL in the last 60 days. We will announce further updates on M&As, and unlocking value as they unfold.”

The firm said it has always been promoter-funded with the founder group still owning 70 per cent plus in the company.  The company is reportedly in talks for a $ 400 million fundraise at a valuation of $4 billion. The firm said this milestone of unicorn is just a path to the larger mission of the global edtech major - upGrad.

Founded by Screwvala along with Mayank Kumar and Phalgun Kompalli, upGrad has impacted over 1 million total registered learners in over 50 countries. The company said it drives deep learning for the real world, by creating original content harnessing industry experts across the globe. It offers learners a hyper-personalized and comprehensive one-stop solution. upGrad’s expanding partnerships with leading global universities include 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) and IIM Kozhikode (India).