Manish Kalra, chief operating officer (COO) of offline business at the firm, told Business Standard, “We currently have 23 centres and the plan is to double down very fast and scale them. We can accelerate as well based on the demand that we see, but definitely the plan is to hit a 50 within the next 12 months.”
The company already has its footprint of 23 centres across 20 cities, and it aims to deepen its presence further in Tier-II and Tier-III markets. The existing centres are present in cities, including Pune, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Hyderabad, Gurugram, Indore, Bilaspur, Mangaluru, Raipur, Rajkot, and Jaipur.
Kalra shared that the demographic showing heightened interest in offline ways of learning is individuals in the 21-26 age group, who wish to acquire job-ready skills. “The TG (target group) belongs to the 21-26 age group, is almost graduate or graduated, and wants to become job-ready with the latest skills. The demographic is equally spread in metros as well as other cities. I would say 70 per cent of them are STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) graduates. They want a structured input-training program, and we enable them through classroom teaching, disciplined approach,” Kalra said.
In addition to youngsters, the platform is also providing weekend classes for working professionals in cities like Bangalore, Pune, and Hyderabad. “They (working professionals) want to come, learn from the instructor, practise, ask questions, become enabled, and obviously upskill for that next level of job they want,” he added.
The company’s offline courses, on average, are priced at nearly ₹75,000 for six months.
Among all available courses, “data science” is driving demand as it has emerged as the most-popular in offline centres. Kalra added that the platform doesn’t just impart technical classes, but also assists learners to develop soft skills and practise with mock interviews.
UpGrad opened its initial offline centres in metro cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad, and based on those learnings, expanded further to other cities. It’s in the last six months that the platform has ramped up its offline presence in 23 cities.
In terms of performance of the offline centres, Kalra said that centres that started early have an occupancy rate of 80-100 per cent, and those that are new, are operating at 20 per cent. He mentioned that cities like Mangalore, Coimbatore, Pune, and Sambhaji Nagar (Maharashtra) are performing well.
The current contribution of the offline segment to the overall revenue is in lower double digits, he added.
On probable collaborations with campuses and universities to tap into their infrastructure and be in close vicinity with potential learners, Kalra said: “You will see some things coming out very soon, next quarter itself. The plan is to leverage the infrastructures of colleges, and maybe open some centres of excellence. There are some of the projects which are in discussions.”
Founded in 2015, upGrad initially started as an edtech platform focused on upskilling. It has raised over $320 million to date in equity and debt. The platform recently shared plans to acquire rival edtech firm Unacademy in an all-stock deal to enhance its focus on the K-12 segment. The K-12 segment represents the entire span of primary and secondary education, from kindergarten to 12th grade, before higher education.
 "Manish Kalra, COO — Offline Business, UpGrad")