EdTech Giant upGrad becomes the Latest Entrant to the Unicorn Club

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Siddhant Khanvilkar

Last updated:

19th Aug, 2021

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EdTech Giant upGrad becomes the Latest Entrant to the Unicorn Club

It’s a big win for upGrad! The Mumbai-based ed-tech startup that provides upskilling courses – inclined towards higher education in tech, management, and marketing – to both freshers and working professionals, reached a valuation of $1.2 billion after a $185 million funding round on August 9, 2021. While Singapore’s Temasek led the financing round, IIFL and International Finance Corporation (World Bank) also participated. The first trench of this round (of about $125 million) was completed in April this year with a valuation of over $600 million.

“We are pleased with the investor interest ever since we opened up for fundraise and had our maiden raise from Temasek, followed by IFC and IIFL in the last 60 days,” said Ronnie Screwvala – chairperson and co-founder of upGrad.

This six-year-old startup has enabled students across the globe to get a high-quality education and high-paying jobs in the fast-paced industry. In recent months, upGrad has entered the international market with over 100 courses in digital marketing, blockchain, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and more. upGrad offers these courses in collaboration with some of the most well-known universities globally, including IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, Swiss School of Business Management (Geneva), Michigan State University, IIIT Bangalore, and Liverpool University.

More than a million users from across 40+ countries have enrolled and engaged with upGrad’s courses. upGrad’s website conveys a student base of over 62,000 paid students. The courses are priced between $3,200 to $6,850 and last for six months to 2+ years. Post the courses, upGrad provides comprehensive job assistance in helping the students get a good job, and its alumni network acts as a good bridge for freshers to enter the job market. upGrad’s growth was inevitable, but with the pandemic, the growth skyrocketed sooner than ever, with more students opting for online distance courses for higher education.

With this, upGrad graces its presence in the list of Indian startups entering the Unicorn Club in 2021. There are 50 Indian Unicorns, including CoinDCX, Eruditus, BlackBuck, Zeta, Urban Company, and Dailyhunt being some of the prominent names in this club.

Siddhant Khanvilkar

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Siddhant Khanvilkar is an experienced Content Marketer with a high degree of expertise in SEO and Web Analytics. Siddhant has a Degree in Mass Media with a Specialization in Advertising.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What are the courses offered by upGrad?

upGrad offers a wide range of courses to its users. These courses are available for both students and working professionals. Most of these courses are remote courses and can be completed through the comforts of your home. upGrad offers courses in MBA (Master in Business Administration), Data Science, Machine Learning, Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Law, Software Development, Cloud Computing, DevOps, Blockchain, Project Management, Artificial Intelligence, etc. It offers Bachelor's degrees, Master’s degrees, diplomas, and certificate courses to its users.

2. What are the colleges which collaborate with upGrad?

To offer good quality education to its users, upGrad collaborated with a wide range of institutes present within India and abroad. These institutes are industry recognized and have good staff to ensure that the students get their knowledge through the best faculty. Some of the Indian institutes with which upGrad collaborates are IIT Madras, IIM Kozhikode, and IIIT Bangalore. Some of the foreign universities with which upGrad collaborates are the Liverpool John Moores Institutes, PURDUE University, Golden Gate University, Swiss School of Business Management, The Wharton School, Duke CE, etc.

3. What is the Unicorn Club?

Unicorn Club refers to a startup that is owned privately and has a company valuation of over $1 Billion. Any privately owned company having a net value of over $1 billion can become a Unicorn Club member or a Unicorn Startup. Becoming a part of the Unicorn Club is a rare feat as companies with innovative ideas, good business plans and a solid vision for growth are the only ones who can get into the club. These companies also need good capital which is only possible by convincing venture capitalists and private investors about their companies' ideas and motives.