upGrad raises Rs 300 cr from Ronnie Screwvala, Temasek, others in an internal funding round

Edtech major upGrad has completed an internal rights issue worth Rs 300 crore where Rs 81 crore was contributed by Temasek and Rs 212 crore is infused by the company’s Co-founder and Chairman Ronnie Screwvala.
 
Temasek is a global investment company headquartered in Singapore and is also an existing shareholder in upGrad. upGrad, on the other hand, is an Indian edtech company which operates out of 31 offices located in India, USA, UK, Middle East, Singapore & Vietnam.
 
An upGrad spokesperson confirmed the development and said, “The company is focused on its organic and in-organic growth across multiple verticals of formal education via degree, diploma and doctorate courses in partnership with the best universities in India and globally." 
 
The spokesperson also said that the firm is focused on a large segment of skilling, short-certification courses, bootcamps and job-linked programs coupled with the fast-growing sector of students wanting to study abroad. 
 
upGrad was founded in 2015 by Screwvala, Mayank Kumar and Kompalli. In July last year, it acquired another edtech company Harappa Education for Rs 300 crore. 
 
The company seems to be less impacted by the funding winter which the start-up ecosystem has been beset with for sometime now. In August last year, the Mumbai-based company raised $210 million in a round that saw participation from ETS Global, Bodhi Tree, Kaizen Management Advisors and others. 
 
However, it also laid off employees at the beginning of this year. Business Today had reported in January that Harappa has laid off around 30 per cent of its workforce. 
 
In March, upGrad carried out a second round of job cuts which saw 120 employees getting laid off from the company.
 
It also joined the bandwagon of edtech companies (such as BYJU’S and Unacademy) expanding offline. The company announced in November its plans to earmark $30 million for offline expansion as well as to open 10 new campuses in 2023. 
 

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