Global edtech major upGrad raises USD 120 million

Mumbai: upGrad, South Asia’s largest online higher education company, today announced that it has raised USD 120 million from Temasek, a global investment company headquartered in Singapore. This is the first external funding raised by the edtech major. Since its founding six years ago in 2015, upGrad has been 100% owned, funded, and run by its co-founders as a capital-efficient business.

upGrad plans to use the fresh capital to further strengthen its team, scale its global market operations, bolster its technology and product capabilities, pursue M&A opportunities, expand graduate and post-graduate degree portfolio in India, and scale up operations to achieve its USD 2 billion revenue goal by 2026, thereby reinforcing its position as a global higher-edtech leader emerging from India.

upGrad Co-Founders Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar and Phalgun Kompalli said in a joint statement, “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. This capital will further fuel our commitment towards global expansion as well as deeper India penetration, as we march forward with our goal of making India the teaching capital of the world.”

Credit Suisse acted as the exclusive financial advisor to upGrad, and Rajaram Legal acted as legal advisor.