upGrad commits Rs 100 crore for 100 'connect and counselling' hubs

Ronnie Screwvala-led educational technology unicorn upGrad is opening 100 offline ‘connect and counselling’ touchpoints and ‘learning centres’ in the country to enhance its online growth. The first two counselling centres have already been inaugurated in Mumbai and Delhi, while the first two learning centres are established in Indore and Pune.

Initial reactions have been strong, with over 500 career counselling sessions in the first 30 days. The goal is for the 100 centres to counsel over half a million individuals on their career moves. The learning centres are expected to witness enrolments of over 10,000 learners.

The company has earmarked an initial corpus of Rs 100 crore to further expand across non-metros and smaller towns and accelerate operations in the next 12 months. It plans to establish 75 counselling centres, with the remaining 25 centres focusing on learning. This initiative supplements upGrad’s existing offline presence with over 50 franchises and 150 channel partners.

Mayank Kumar, co-founder and managing director of upGrad, said in an interview, “We believe that the online channel has its own set of limitations and challenges for scaling up. From a growth and strategic perspective, we are now focusing on establishing a stronger offline presence for upGrad. Establishing these centres will bring us closer to customers who still prefer learning at a physical centre.”

Kumar anticipates that setting up these learning and counselling centres alone will generate revenue of about Rs 1,000 crore in three to four years. He highlighted India’s unique position to dominate global talent markets and emphasised the company’s efforts to provide career guidance and high-quality learning to every age group through carefully integrated offerings in the current financial year.

The centres will serve as hubs for career counselling, providing access to all of upGrad’s courses and programmes in one place for those looking to upskill and reskill.

Kumar said, “We’ve identified high-demand geographic pockets that will allow talents beyond metros to experience the sincere handholding they need in their lifelong learning journey.”

upGrad reported revenue of Rs 1,194 crore in 2022-23 (FY23), a 96 per cent increase from Rs 608 crore in 2021-22 (FY22). The company moved to the widely accepted IndAS accounting standard in 2022-23 (FY23) in line with its listing plans.

On an annual recurring revenue basis, the company recently mentioned that the revenue would have been higher, but some mergers and acquisitions did not consolidate in FY23. Due to the realignment of revenues, upGrad carried forward a deferred collected revenue of Rs 443 crore to 2023-24. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation loss (operating cash loss) was Rs 558 crore, compared to Rs 572 crore in FY22.

upGrad is in the advanced stages of acquiring US online education firm Udacity, according to sources. The company is in talks with investors, seeking fundraising of up to $100 million to finance the deal.

Kumar declined to comment on this deal, but sources suggest upGrad is serious about the enterprise market in the US and aims to have a stronger presence there.

“The company has formed a strategy to have a strong international presence. The US market is bigger than the Indian market,” said a person familiar with the development.