Amod Malviya, a co-founder of the B2B marketplace Udaan, has launched a new business called Pre6 two months after leaving Udaan’s board. Malviya shared an announcement on LinkedIn that reads, “New beginnings!” and included a photo of the founding team.
To incorporate the new Bengaluru-based firm, he has partnered with Rishi Kedia, the former chief financial officer (CFO) of Udaan. Malviya has been working on the new platform since November 2024, according to his LinkedIn post. With the exception of the fact that it would be a “technology, information, and internet” corporation, nothing much is known about the new platform’s features. The startup’s website simply says “coming soon” and is not yet operating.
Malviya’s Journey in the Startup Sector Till Now
Malviya, a former member of Flipkart’s core team, is an IIT Kharagpur alumnus. In 2015, he left his position as the e-commerce giant’s chief technology officer (CTO) to launch the B2B e-commerce platform Udaan the following year, in 2016.
Malviya resigned from the startup’s board late last year after leaving an operational position at Udaan in 2022. While the B2B e-commerce platform Udaan has been experiencing turbulent waters, Malviya has floated its new venture with a hope of striking a positive chord.
Current Financial Outlook of Udaan
During the fierce funding winter of 2023, Udaan’s valuation dropped to $1.8 billion, a significant decrease from its previous valuation of $3.2 billion in 2020. In October of last year, the business also announced the completion of its INR 300 Cr debt fundraising round, which was provided by Lighthouse Canton, Stride Ventures, InnoVen Capital, and Trifecta Capital.
The B2B e-commerce company has been having financial difficulties growing. According to reports, it was able to raise its gross income from INR 5,609.3 Cr in FY23 to INR 5,706.6 Cr in FY24, a slight rise of 1.72%. At INR 1,674.1 Cr, its loss decreased 19% year over year (YoY).
Launching Their Own Startups Became a New Norm for Co-Founders
There has been an uptick in the number of new businesses launched by startup cofounders, and Malviya is the latest to sail Pre6. It was announced earlier this week that Mayank Kumar, a cofounder of upGrad, has founded a new company named “BorderPlus.”
With the establishment of his new company, Sports For Life, in 2024, DealShare cofounder Sourjyendu Medda made his foray into the sportstech space. In September 2024, Koo cofounder Mayank Bidawatka also founded Billion Hearts Software Technologies to develop consumer goods for customers throughout the world.
Prashanth Ranganathan, a cofounder of the fintech startup PaySense, also founded Zinc, a fintech company focused on international education, last year. Nexus Venture Partners led the $25.5 million seed fundraising round for Zinc.
Ayush Mathur, an early team member of the hotel and travel-tech company OYO, and Mayank Kumar, an education leader and co-founder of upGrad, have joined forces as co-founders to develop BorderPlus, a talent mobility platform that links blue-collar workers to opportunities throughout the world.
After working at the Parthenon Group for almost ten years, the pair is getting back together with the goal of closing the labour gap and emphasising fair access for workers from developing nations like India.
Natural resources are hardly abundant in India. The greatest resource of the nation is its people. India needs to leverage its demographic dividend in order to create something significant and expansive. One of the best examples of how India has created a remarkable service line to meet global demands is in IT services. “I think India is positioned to become the world’s largest supplier of talent to the global economy, given the country’s demographic dynamics,” Kumar said.
With aspirations to grow into other industries like hotel, retail, teaching, construction/logistics, and trucking, in addition to exploring other regions in the future, BorderPlus will initially concentrate on the German healthcare market.
Mathur, who has worked for OYO for more than ten years and was most recently the President of OYO Europe, explains that a large amount of OYO’s European business is in Denmark and Germany, where he has observed a lack of housekeeping workers.
How BorderPlus will work?
With a target of 20–30 applicants every batch, the business intends to deploy many batches each month across different areas. It plans to ramp up to weekly batches after first running batches once a month.
For efficient language learning, the last month or two of the six- to nine-month programs are conducted offline. The remaining months can be completed online, in a hybrid learning environment, or offline. According to Kumar, the first training site is in Pune, followed by Mumbai, and other last-mile training sites will be established around the nation.
For language practice through back-and-forth spoken exchanges, the startup is creating an AI-led conversational bot based on OpenAI architecture. Kumar emphasises that although the programs would cost INR 2 lakh, participants will receive complete reimbursement as a scholarship or relocation aid after they arrive in Germany.
“Once a recruiter recruits them, we might get paid.” It’s a revenue stream that is more driven by enterprises than by consumers,” he continues. The organisation focuses on a finishing school that offers a curriculum that includes 10% skills development, 20% cultural preparation, and 70% language training to prepare students. Kumar notes that India’s educational system already offers robust skill training, particularly in fields like nursing and healthcare, as seen by the BSc Nursing program.
Major Challenges
Teaching 20–23-year-olds a foreign language, especially German, at a time when language acquisition is challenging is one of the biggest obstacles, according to Kumar. Maintaining industry standards is made more difficult by competing with unorganised players who don’t follow the regulations. Building trust for a strong Indian brand abroad is another challenge, especially in the German and European markets where corporates and recruiters might not be familiar with the brand.
Since hospitals are looking for clear and reliable hiring procedures, Mathur thinks that trust is a big issue because of the reputation of unregulated methods. This trust gap can be closed by providing a transparent, technology-driven solution, which is essential for industry growth and cooperation with European and UK organisations.
According to a media report, managing director and cofounder of the edtech unicorn Upgrad, Mayank Kumar, has left his position as an executive to launch a new business. Last month, he began reducing his operational responsibilities at the Mumbai-based company. This step was taken to raise funds for his new venture, which focuses on sending talented Indian workers abroad, particularly for the healthcare industry.
Ronnie Screwvala, the company’s founder and chairman, has been involved in the business more since Kumar left. According to a media report, Temasek-backed Upgrad is also nearing the completion of securing $50–60 million in capital from current investors at a flat valuation of $2.25 billion. Kumar owns 8% of the company, while Screwvala owns 44%. Despite Kumar’s exit from the company, the shareholding pattern remains unchanged.
Upgrad’s IPO Plans
Screwvala’s return coincides with the edtech company’s intentions to go public in India, where the serial entrepreneur’s increased involvement in the company could be advantageous to public market investors.
Mayank has been discussing the notion of raising funds with investors and making pitches to them. He will then register the company, and, as the media report further informs, he has not had operational involvement since October.
India’s Edtech Scenario
The edtech industry is currently undergoing a period of significant transformation. Recent turmoil at Byju’s and a broad restructuring in the higher education sector are significant factors. Upgrad’s revenue in FY24 increased by 25.54% to INR 1,715 crore from INR 1,366 crore the year before. Although Upgrad has expanded at a specific rate, a faster growth rate was the goal.
As a result, Screwvala will now have more influence over important operational decisions. He will now focus more on the IPO plans that are imminent and businesses attempting to capitalise on the present surge in demand for new listings.
Restricting of Upgrad
The restructure at Upgrad was confirmed by Screwvala and Kumar. In October 2023, Ronnie and Kumar had a conversation about Mayank’s lack of involvement in the company’s daily operations and how he could play a more active role. Thus, since the beginning of this year, the two have switched positions at Upgrad, according to Kumar. He also informed further that he is still an 8% stakeholder and that he is not “going anywhere.”
“Moving positions around during a company’s life cycle is exciting, and that is exactly what we have done. Since it has always been our goal to outlast everyone else and build for the long term, none of us are going anywhere. Since this field of skill development, workforce development, and lifelong learning is only getting started, Mayank and I have also assembled an extremely strong team of colleagues around us,” stated Screwvala.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations.
With exponential growth in the number of internet and smartphone users in India, turning online to get one’s tasks done is now mainstream. Education too falls under this umbrella. Online tutoring has many benefits such as economical courses, flexible schedules, and 24/7 access to get doubts and queries cleared. This has made online learning popular among all age groups. upGrad, a Mumbai-based startup, is bringing the best out of the online education segment.
upGrad has tied up with world-class institutes to facilitate access to career-oriented courses and assist Indian students and working professionals who want to upgrade their careers.
StartupTalky interviewedupGrad founder Mayank Kumar to know how the startup was founded, and how it is helping students and professionals to pursue higher education online. Read on to know about upGrad’s business model, revenue model, founders, challenges, funding, growth, and the story of its success.
upGrad – Company Highlights
Startup Name
upGrad
Headquarters
Mumbai
Founders
Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, Phalgun Kompalli, and Ravijot Chugh
upGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. is an online higher education company that provides programs in the areas of data, technology, and management to college students, first-time job seekers, and working professionals and empowers them to reach their peak potential. These programs are designed in collaboration with top-notch universities like IIIT-B, BITS Pilani, MICA, Cambridge Judge Business School, and many others.
To enhance the learning experience further, a comprehensive ecosystem has been built which includes, but is not restricted to, one-on-one mentoring, peer-to-peer learning, industry networking, and expert career guidance. This ensures a holistic approach to gaining the maximum out of the programs offered.
“We, at upGrad, had always believed in the potential of online education being able to transform careers. Hence, the development and adherence to the company’s vision statement since its inception in 2015 – ‘Building careers of tomorrow’,” said Ronnie Screwvala, upGrad founder.
As per an IBEF report, the higher education market in India stands at $102 billion. If we consider the online higher education market, it stands at $247 million and is expected to grow by 8X to reach $1.96 billion in 2021. Techavio’s industry research report pegs the online education market in India to be worth about $18 billion by 2022, growing at a CAGR of around 20% over five years.
The total enrollment in higher education in India has been estimated to be 34.6 million, the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in higher education is 24.5% for the age group of 18-23 years, and distance enrollment constitutes about 11.05% of the total enrollment in higher education programs. The perception of recruiters towards online degrees in India has also changed since UGC permitted eligible universities to offer degree courses online. This decision is a revolutionary step toward propelling the online education sector in India.
upGrad learning platform was founded in 2015 by Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, Phalgun Kompalli, and Ravijot Chugh.
upGrad Founders
Ronnie Screwvala | Co-founder & Chairman, upGrad
Ronnie Screwvala is the chairman of upGrad. Ronnie is a well-known personality in the Indian television industry and the founder of UTV Group (now known as Walt Disney India), founder trustee of Swades Foundation, founder of Unilazer Ventures, Board of Advisor AIESEC India, and the founder of RSVP Movies. He has been featured on Esquire’s List of the 75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century and ranked 78 among the 100 most influential people in the world on the Time 100 (compiled by Time Magazine, 2009). He was also listed among 25 Asia’s Most Powerful People by Fortune Magazine and titled the Jack Warner of India by Newsweek.
Mayank Kumar | Co-founder & MD, upGrad
Mayank Kumar is the Managing Director and leads the overall operations at upGrad. Before his upGrad stint, Mayank was the VP of Education at Bertelsmann- Europe’s largest media and education conglomerate—where he oversaw the education strategy and its multi-million dollar investments in India. He also served as a Board Member of iNurture—India’s number-one provider of industry-specific academic programs.
Mayank holds a Bachelor’s degree from IIT Delhi and an MBA from the Indian School of Business. He received the coveted BWDISRUPT 40-under-40 Achiever of the Year Award’17 by BW Businessworld. Before joining Bertelsmann, Mayank was a Senior Principal at The Parthenon Group where he advised clients in the education sector on market potential, growth and market entry strategies, investment decisions, revenue & profit uplift strategies. He participated in deals worth USD 1 billion flowing into the education sector and worked with clients from China, South-East Asia, Middle East India, and South America. He also worked at the Tata Strategic Group, advising Tata’s strategic direction.
Ravijot Chugh | Co-founder, upGrad
Ravijot Chugh heads career services, product, design, content, delivery, and student success divisions at upGrad. Ravijot was at Housing.com as a product lead and then at the Parthenon Group where he advised multiple companies and private equity investors on due diligence, market-entry, and growth strategy in the education sector of emerging markets across Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. He also co-founded a social travel startup called 36hrs. is headquartered in San Francisco. Ravijot Chugh holds a Bachelors’s degree in Computer Science from IIT-Delhi and was part of the Forbes Asia 30 under 30 cohort of 2018.
Phalgun Kompalli | Co-founder, upGrad
Phalgun Kompalli is the head of sales and marketing at upGrad. He heads university partnerships and customer acquisition in addition to sales and marketing. Before UpGrad, Phalgun was a Principal at The Parthenon Group—an education strategy-consulting firm—where he was involved in advising large education conglomerates and investment funds on their growth and investment strategies in the education sector. Phalgun has done significant work in the field of higher education and technology-enabled learning across India, the US, Brazil, Africa, and Southeast Asia. He worked at Opera Solutions before his Parthenon stint. Opera Solutions is an analytics firm providing consultation to Fortune 500 companies on their revenue and cost optimization initiatives through data analytics. He completed his Bachelors in Technology from IIT Delhi.
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upGrad has a workforce of 3800+ employees. The company has strengthened its senior leadership team to capitalize on potential opportunities in the online education sector.
Over the last two years, the startup has developed a holistic digital education experience for working professionals and college students for upskilling and reskilling. We are happy that the new senior leadership brings diverse and rich learnings for upGrad to unlock the immense potential in the online education space and understand the Indian learners. We will continue this growth momentum, offering innovative opportunities for the working professionals and students to equip themselves with the new-age skills for the workforce of the future – Ronnie Screwvala & Mayank Kumar, Co-founders of upGrad.
upGrad’s vision revolves around ‘building careers of tomorrow’. The learning experience it delivers is at the core of its business. The upGrad team constantly strives for excellence and has a high degree of passion and pride in whatever it does. Some of the main highlights of upGrad’s work culture are:
It is committed to building the careers of tomorrow: People working with the company have a sense of job satisfaction and a feeling of doing something special since their contribution has the power to improve the customer/learner’s life and career.
It supports innovation: As an ed-tech company, upGrad believes that technology is the future. That’s why the employees are constantly motivated to take up innovative initiatives across various functions.
Open culture: The leadership team is highly approachable, the structure is flat, and employees are encouraged to take up initiatives.
Promote upskilling: Being a company that endorses upskilling, upGrad spurs its employees to take up its courses at discounted rates for staying relevant with changing times.
The key traits of upGrad’s work culture are centered on:
Long-term thinking with clinical execution.
Empathy and impact.
Accountability and ownership.
Delivering excellence.
“We at upGrad always look for passion in an individual, be it for work or outside work. The individual may be passionate about running, social work, movies, music, traveling, etc. For us, passion demonstrates how driven an individual is & how diligently they follow their passion,” said Mayank Kumar, co-founder of upGrad.
Mayank has vast experience in the education industry, both as an advisor and an investor. He observed the benefits of low infrastructure costs and a large student base in reducing the price of procuring education via the online channel. These factors led to online courses being 53% cheaper than the offline alternatives. Owing to the flexibility of time, schedule, etc., online education is a convenient mode of learning. As a result, many online education companies have sprung up to cater to the huge scope of online courses.
Although there were companies in the K-12 segment and platforms providing MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses), none of them provided formal education coupled with a comprehensive learning experience. Mayank foresaw that the requirement for online learning would be much higher for technical certifications given the increase in the working population at that time. Again, none of the existing companies completely tapped into the online higher education space. This led to the idea behind upGrad which was subsequently launched in 2015.
“We first built a content team which has now grown by 5 folds. They created subject matter from scratch, collecting and collating industry trends and university curriculum. We quickly developed a tech team that focuses purely on the smooth functioning of our online platform. Since then we have always focused on building a great online learning experience by collaborating with the right universities like BITS Pilani, IIIT-Bangalore, Cambridge Judge Business School of Executive Education, etc. We also have collaborations with some of the industry’s best such as Google, Flipkart, Gramener to name a few in order to create a cohesive and practical learning experience,” says upGrad owner Mayank Kumar, explaining the inception phase of the company.
Starting with its first program in entrepreneurship, upGrad has created some of India’s largest online programs to help thousands of professionals and college students achieve their career goals in the areas of data, technology, and management.
upGrad – Mission and Vision
“Making our learners achieve their desired outcomes,” says upGrad mission.
upGrad vision – “Powering career success for every member of the global workforce as their trusted lifelong learning partner.”
“Interestingly, we had registered the company under the name of UEducation when we started. Very soon we conducted an exercise with an external agency to determine our brand name and logo. Through that exercise, we came upon the name – upGrad,” adds Mayank.
According to Mayank, two key reasons behind choosing the name ‘upGrad’ were:
It had a smart twist.
It had a nice connotation to the word “graduation”.
upGrad is all about upgrading lives and careers by offering graduation and post-graduation programs.
upGrad logo
Narrating the concept of the company’s logo, Mayank says “Development of the brand logo was an interesting exercise too. While we looked at multiple options – we liked the existing one where G was in upper-case and highlighted. The shape of the ‘G’ resembles the refresh icon. Hence the logo represents that upGrad is about enabling a refresh for your life and career.”
upGrad – Courses
The online courses offered by the upGrad learning platform include MBA, IT Courses, Data Science, Machine Learning, Digital Marketing, Software, Blockchain, Insurance-related courses, and more. upGrad has a structured educational program for every phase of a person’s career right from college to professional employment.
In line with its vision of ‘building careers of tomorrow’, this Mumbai-based startup inspires college students to take the initial steps towards their professional journey. It focuses on getting them job-ready. The courses prepare students to crack the recruitment processes for different roles through aptitude training, resume building, and mock interview prep sessions. Along with the paid/premium courses that upGrad offers, where the company extends numerous degrees and certifications from a wide variety of courses across the country and abroad, it also offers numerous upGrad free courses ranging from Data Science, Technology to Management.
upGrad has also launched programs with a guaranteed job for those who are seeking their first employment stint. The program offers a guaranteed job upon successful completion of the program. On the other hand, working professionals have the advantage of going back to the university through upGrad’s immersive learning platform without the need to quit their jobs. On course completion, the learners become alumni of the partner university. They also get to attend on-campus hackathons and graduation ceremonies.
upGrad also provides solutions to enterprises seeking the upskilling of their employees. In FY 19-20, upGrad entered into a partnership with 2 of India’s leading IT services companies—Infosysand Wipro. These are multi-year deals and have a strong repeat element. With this, the company has established a strong position in the enterprise ecosystem.
The upGrad team has also introduced a concept called ‘upGrad basecamp’. This is a unique concept wherein the learners get a chance to network and engage in peer-to-peer learning through offline meetups. They also receive career support which involves resume building, career landscaping, mock interviews, interview guarantees, and more. The ‘Just in Time’ Interview Prep by upGrad helps learners with last-minute interview preparation, guiding them through key concepts before interviews, and mentoring them through the joining process.
A key USP for upGrad is its mentorship; the very fact that the startup spends money on mentoring while others find a course and put it online. Some other differentiators are its tech platform, interactive interface, and content—all of which have been created from scratch by its team.
The company has also teamed up with Agora.io, the leading voice, video, and live streaming platform, to launch upGrad Live platform. It is built to replicate a real-time classroom learning experience for enrolled students by providing greater interactivity, real-time doubt resolution, in-class concept checks, and session analytics to gauge live session performances.
upGrad is largely built on a direct B2C model of business wherein the consumer enrolls in the program (post receiving an admit) and pays upfront for the enrollment. For its enterprise business, the company receives payment from companies for training its employees.
upGrad’s program pricing reflects its commitment towards getting students placed. 50% of the program fees are collected from the learner only if they get placed after the program’s completion. This pricing strategy is the first of its kind in India.
upGrad – Funding And Investors
The company has raised $668.2 million till now in 7 funding rounds, with the most recent round on March 29, 2023, totaling $30 million from investor Ronnie Screwvala.
Here are all the details of the 7 funding rounds that UpGrad has seen so far:
Date
Series
Amount
Investors
March 29, 2023
Venture Round
$30 million
Ronnie Screwvala
August 8, 2022
Venture Round
$210 million
ETS Global, Bodhi Tree and Kaizen Management Advisors
June 16, 2022
Venture Round
$225 million
Lupa Systems, Educational Testing Service.
August 9, 2021
Venture Round
$65 million
IFC, IIFL and Temasek
April 26, 2021
Venture Round
$120 million
Temasek Holdings
April 14, 2021
Venture Round
$9.3 million
Unilazer Ventures
August 12, 2020
Debt Financing
$6.69 million
IIFL Asset Management
upGrad – User Acquisition
For the first 100 customers, upGrad used several offline events to promote its initiative. The founders personally spoke to the learners. Prospective learners had to share their video profiles and SOPs (Statement of Purpose) before enrolling. They were then given 2 weeks of learning content for free. Only after experiencing the free content was the payment option made available to them.
“We had expected that initially, 50-60 learners would enroll, but 100 ended up enrolling in the program. It was one of the most exhilarating and humbling experiences for us,” recalls Mayank.
Like all businesses, upGrad encountered multiple challenges. The most significant one was the stigma surrounding the credibility of online education. There is a general perception that online education is frivolous. upGrad had to prove otherwise through its product, customer experience, and success stories; and this was a tough job.
Getting recruiters to accept that online education could be as rigorous as offline education was the next hurdle. Finally, when it came to product pricing, upGrad priced itself at a discount to offline competitors, but at a premium to other online competitors. It was an uphill task to explain the value proposition of the programs to the learners.
“The entire task of building a higher education brand is made more arduous by the prevailing consumer mindset around education. Education in India is considered by many as a time-bound, one-time activity, post completion of which one starts working and does not go back to studying again. It is a mammoth task to change the mindset of the people by convincing them that education has no age limit, lifelong learning is the new mantra and need of the hour for all” – Mayank.
However, there are certain features that set upGrad apart from its competitors. One of the main USPs is the hand-holding provided to each learner. This practice is called ‘student mentorship’ and the team behind it is known as ‘Student Success’ at upGrad.
upGrad’s total acquisition count is 16 companies to date. upGrad acquired Centum Learning in an undisclosed deal, which is the latest acquisition on September 15, 2022.
Here’s the table mentioning all the acquisitions that upGrad has seen so far.
Acquired
Date
Price
Centum Learning
September 15, 2022
–
Exampur
August 1, 2022
–
Harappa Education
July 22, 2022
$37.54 million
WOLVES India
July 14, 2022
–
INSOFE
May 2, 2022
$33 million
Work Better
January 10, 2022
Undisclosed
Talentedge
December 6, 2021
Undisclosed
Global Study Partners
November 29, 2021
Undisclosed
KnowledgeHut
August 3, 2021
Undisclosed
Impartus Innovations
May 24, 2021
$20.22 million
Rekrut India
December 15, 2020
Undisclosed
The Gate Academy
November 24, 2020
Undisclosed
CohortPlus
July 4, 2019
Undisclosed
AcadView
October 29, 2018
Undisclosed
Pyoopil Education Technologies Pvt Ltd
October 17, 2016
Undisclosed
upGrad – ESOPs
upGrad conducted its maiden ESOP on July 13, 2021, and in it, the company promised the liquidity of an amount close to $29.5 Mn (Rs 220 crores). The maiden ESOP of upGrad has formed a large ESOP pool of around 13% of the enlarged equity base and is planned to benefit both the early and promising team members of the company. The inclusive ESOP scheme boasts of having over 600 team members, who share the growth story of the company, consisting of 37 early team members.
The company further increased its employee stock option program (ESOPs) pool by 28% in the middle of November. upGrad, which has earlier spoken of 17,25,810 options (UPGRAD Education-Employee Stock Option (New) Scheme, 2015) has now made it 22,25,810. This also resulted in lifting the pool’s value by 29%, to Rs 427 crore, which was last reported at Rs 331 crore.
UpGrad’s new ESOP options are estimated to be valued at Rs 244 crore ($30 million) according to Fintrackr, while the overall value of the company’s employee shares is roughly Rs 2,058 crore ($260 million) as of reported news in March 2023.
upGrad – Advisors And Mentors
Emphasizing the importance of knowledgeable advisors for an entrepreneur, Mayank says, “There are many acquaintances who have been helping me, guiding me as I go along the journey. As an entrepreneur, you tend to dive deep into execution and thoughts, thereby sometimes failing to look at the bigger picture. It is always good to meet with well-wishers, bounce off ideas and get an outside-in perspective.”
In a short span of around 5 years, the startup claimed to have onboarded over 21,500 paid learners and has impacted more than 370K individuals globally, making it India’s largest online higher-education company based on gross revenue generated from the Indian market in FY18-19.
In the period when the impact of COVID-19 was at its peak, upGrad onboarded over 100 colleges and universities onto its platform to pave the way for blended online learning as the future of education.
upGrad has been successful in achieving its target unicorn status on August 9, 2021, by raising around $185 million in a round led by Temasek, IIFL, and IFC at a valuation of $1.2 billion.
Here are some of the prominent growth highlights of upGrad:
The company is an ed-tech unicorn and stands as a competitor of the highest-valued Edtech company in India, Byju’s
upGrad has witnessed a 100% growth at the beginning of FY21
The company also has over 45,000 paid students
It has crossed a milestone of acquiring 1 million learners in just 5 years of its operations
upGrad claims to have 10,000 graduates in 2022.
upGrad has 300 direct global university partners as of FY23.
It has 20,000 recruitment partners and 30,000 corporate partners.
The company claims to have provided learning to 7 million students in more than 100 countries.
The company’s valuation is $2.25 billion.
As per upGrad website, it has provided jobs in 10,000+ companies.
UpGrad launched UpGrad Foundation
UpGrad has announced the launch of UpGrad Foundation on April 4, 2022, which is a philanthropic initiative of the company and will serve as a non-profit arm of the edtech company. As per the recent reports, the company has already devoted Rs 50 crore to train the teachers, support decent mentorship and coaching, and conduct career counselling sessions, scholarships, internships, and online student exchange programs.
Financials
upGrad operating revenue has increased from Rs 679 crore in FY21 to Rs 679 crore in FY22, while company losses have increased from Rs 211 crore in FY21 to Rs 627 crore in FY22.
upGrad Finanacials
upGrad Expenses
upGrad total expenses increased from Rs 514 crore in FY21 to Rs 1,300 crore in FY22.
Expenses FY21-FY22
FY21
FY22
Advertisement promotion
Rs 205 crore
Rs 424 crore
Employee benefit expenses
Rs 161 crore
Rs 383 crore
University fees
Rs 47 crore
Rs 126 crore
Information technology expenses
Rs 13 crore
Rs 49 crore
Legal and professional fees
Rs 12 crore
Rs 43 crore
Content delivery cost
Rs 37 crore
Rs 124 crore
Others
Rs 39 crore
Rs 151 crore
EBITDA
The company’s financial performance in FY21 and FY22 is worrying. It had a poor EBITDA margin of -58.72% in FY21, which deteriorated to -85.12% in FY22. Per rupee of revenue throughout the two years, operating expenses grew from Rs 1.57 in FY21 to Rs 1.91 in FY22.
upGrad has signed Amitabh Bachchan as its brand ambassador
upGrad has announced that its brand ambassador would be none other than the Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan. The veteran actor will help lift the brand value of upGrad with the help of exclusive endorsements and advertising of the services of the platform and will emphasize the necessity of ‘lifelong learning’ for everyone.
Startup India Learning Program
In 2017, upGrad in collaboration with ‘Invest India’ developed the ‘Startup India Learning Program’. ‘Startup India Learning Program’ is a free online entrepreneurship course by Startup India.
The approach of attracting consumers also included partnerships with entrepreneurship-focused publications to spread the word around. For increasing the customer base, they focused on some subject-specific channels to attract learners. It partnered with universities to launch the next set of programs. Those partnerships also helped scale the existing programs.
upGrad has tie-ups with the following educational institutes:
International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-B).
Birla Institute of Technology and Science.
Pilani (BITS Pilani).
MICA.
Duke Corporate Education (Duke CE).
Cambridge Judge Business School.
Institute of Management Technology (IMT Ghaziabad).
HDFC Life for insurance-related courses.
IIT Madras, for certification course on Machine Learning and Cloud.
NITTE (Deemed to be University)
In order to help B.Tech students with the additional Full Stack Development (FSD) Specialization to power their skill competencies, upGrad and NITTE (Deemed to be University), Mangalore have launched a partnershiped in May, 2023.
JIS University
To offer a Master of Business Administration in Digital Marketing, JIS University and upGrad Campus have signed a Memorandum of Understanding in August, 2023.
Mumba Masters
upGrad partnership with Mumba partners in June, 2023 and with this partnership they will entry into the sports market is an effort to further develop and increase the brand’s presence on a worldwide basis.
upGrad – Campaign
upGrad Ad-Campaign
upGrad – Star India Deal
upGrad has signed up for a high-value deal with Star India. This enabled upGrad to run its ad-campaign “Sirf Naam ki Nahin, Kaam ki Degree” across television and Hotstar (OTT platform) throughout the IPL 2020 (Indian Premiere League). The move was initiated to expedite the adoption of technology and online education.
This is upGrad’s first major sports association and the first onboarding of an ed-tech player on Dream IPL 2020.
“IPL is the most opportune occasion to reach out to individuals reminding them about the urgency to upskill and prepare themselves for the forthcoming competitive world. Our strategic partnership with Star will enable us with the right platform, thereby helping us reach out to a larger set of audience residing in the remotest corners of Bharat,” said Arjun Mohan, CEO, upGrad.
In 2019, upGrad unveiled its first ad campaign featuring actor Vicky Kaushal. The film breaks the myth of online education being ineffective by showcasing how impactful the online education space is and that it is as good as traditional offline education.
upGrad Campaign
The second campaign was based on the insight that Indian working professionals are in a state of inertia where they feel that they do not need to go back to learning once they have a job. These films ought to make customers realize that they have no choice but to learn and upskill themselves to remain relevant in today’s day and time. The campaigns shed light upon upGrad’s unique online power learning approach and demonstrated its influence along with the role it can play in the positive transformation of an individual’s career. It further intends to establish the fact that in this fast-changing world of technology, new-age skills at the workplace are coveted and that upskilling is a necessity.
upGrad – Layoff
Harappa Education, which upGrad acquired, laid off 30% of its staff in the first round of layoffs that took place in July 2022.
According to several press sources, UpGrad has let go of 60 employees about 30% of its workforce. In March 2023, the startup ecosystem experienced layoffs due to a lack of venture financing.
upGrad – Awards
Being a reputed name in the space of online education, upGrad has been recognized and awarded by many prestigious bodies.
In 2016, it was selected as the official education partner for the Government of India’s ‘Start-up India’ learning program. Through the program, upGrad offers entrepreneurship-based courses in 2 languages—Hindi and English—to the budding entrepreneurs of India.
In 2017, Mayank Kumar, the co-founder and CEO of upGrad, was recognized as the Achiever of the Year by BW Disrupt (Business World) at its 40 under 40 events.
In 2017, the startup was featured in the list of ‘Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in India’ by Fast Company.
The company received the ‘Best Education Brands’ award by the Economic Times and made it to LinkedIn’s ‘Top 25 Startups’ in 2018.
Two of the co-founders, Ravijot Chugh and Phalgun Kompalli, are listed in the Forbes 30 Under 30 class of 2018.
In 2018, upGrad’s Machine Learning Program – PG Diploma in Machine Learning and AI in association with IIIT Bangalore, was ranked as the #1 Course on Artificial Intelligence in India by Analytics India Magazine.
The company has also been awarded the ‘Best Tech for Education’ by IAMAI in 2019.
The company won the Best Excellence in Learning Award from Brandon Hall Group in 2021.
upGrad won Best Advanced in Creating a Learning Strategy in 2022 by Brandon Hall Group.
Company won Learning Provider of the Year Siver winer in 2022.
As part of upGrad’s strategic initiative, the company has declared in April 2020, with an aim to increase the learners’ headcount and revenue, that it will focus on 4 major strategic initiatives:
To launch 35 new diverse online programs in the coming years.
All the 90 online programs upGrad offers would have a start date of every month rather than every quarter as done previously, to cope with the growing demand.
To become the first in India to disburse university-approved degrees through blended, online degree programs.
Strengthen its global footprint by targeting the 40-million-strong South Asian migrant population worldwide.
To add another 26 offline experience centres on top of the 26 centres that are already launched
In the next 5 years, upGrad aims to train and build the careers of over 1 million learners and expects its impact to reach at least 5 million working professionals associated with it in a cascading effect. This growing ecosystem, in the long run, will serve as the momentum for establishing it as India’s largest online higher education company with a strong focus on employability.
The company is all set to revolutionize the online learning experience and enhance the employability quotient of its learners.
“Distance learning has been the precursor to upGrad, while augmented learning will be the successor. As a virtual university, we want both students and educators to benefit from embracing new technologies for higher education. Universities on the other side of the globe have been quick to adopt new-age technologies. It’s time our country picked up the pace, as upGrad’s online power learning experience is as good as offline, if not better.” – Mayank Kumar.
Ronnie Screwvala stated that the number of students aligned to the platform will rise to 3 million by the end of FY23. Besides, he also indicated that the edtech platform is targeting $500 million in gross revenue for FY23. An IPO seemed ahead for the unicorn edtech company in the next 2 years, going by its statements of Ronnie.
“We are in active discussions. There are some interesting opportunities in these times and some great entrepreneurs too, and we are excited to bring those companies into upGrad as we look at growth this year,” said Upgrad
UpGrad is planning to acquire US-based edtech Udacity as per various reports from June 2023.
FAQs
Who are the founders of the upGrad learning platform?
upGrad was founded in 2015 byRonnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, Phalgun Kompalli, and Ravijot Chugh.
Who is Upgrad’s CEO?
Arjun Mohan is the CEO of upGrad.
When was upGrad started?
upGrad was founded in 2015.
Who are the top Competitors of upGrad?
The top competitors of upGrad are Coursera, Edureka, Simplilearn, and Unacademy.
How much is upGrad’s operating revenue?
upGrad’s operating revenue was recorded at Rs 679 crore in FY22..
Is upGrad free?
Some of the courses offered by upGrad are free. To make the most out of upGrad’s features, you should register for upGrad’s paid programs.
How is upGrad login done?
You can conveniently login to the upGrad learning platform simply by signing up at the upGrad website/app, and then proceeding to Log in to the same.
What are upGrad free courses?
Along with the paid/premium courses, upGrad also has a collection of upGrad free courses, where the students and professionals can learn almost everything from Data Science to Technology and Management without spending anything.
What is the upgrad mission and vision?
The upGrad mission and vision are:
“Making our learners achieve their desired outcomes.” – UpGrad mission.
“Powering career success for every member of the global workforce as their trusted lifelong learning partner.” – UpGrad vision.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Vanity Wagon.
The love for organic beauty and personal care products is increasing in India. With people becoming aware of the long-term damage that chemical-containing beauty products can cause, the demand for organic and natural products is increasing like never before. This has instigated the emergence of many organic and natural care brands that claim to be chemical-free.
In the presence of too many choices, it has become tough for consumers to choose genuine products. To solve this confusion and to ensure that the consumers choose only genuine organic beauty and personal care products, Vanity Wagon was started. The vanitywagon.in picks and collects just the best organic beauty wagon and personal care products for you.
The vanitywagon.in is a Gurugram-based startup founded in the year 2018. It is a one-stop platform to buy genuine organic beauty products for beauty and personal care. Vanity Wagon offers the products included in the platform that are toxin-free, harmful chemical-free, cruelty-free, and completely safe.
Our belief is to create a shopping experience that is not only par satisfaction but also through an informed choice. We impart a large amount of information on our products and also on the general adoption of organic products in one’s life. We want to grow as a platform that is informative, trustworthy, and fun.
What is Vanity Wagon?
Vanity Wagon app is India’s First Natural Beauty Market with its headquarters in Gurugram. It offers all categories of products like Bath and body, skin-care, hair-care, makeup, men’s care, mom and baby care, beauty products, wellness products, and gifting options. The best part is that all the products available in Vanity Wagon are organic and natural.
According to some Vanity Wagon reviews has also established itself as an informative platform, where they share detailed information about various beauty products, beauty advice from experts, and the various benefits of switching to organic products.
One of the experiments that we did was with our own forum wherein we interact with individuals daily and not only reply to their queries but also post some legitimate–core information on organics and the natural personal care industry. The forum started as a pilot project but with the response, we realized how many information gaps existed in the market and decided to take it on as a long-term project.
Vanity Wagon – Organic / Online Beauty Industry in India
According to Red Seer Consulting, the Indian online beauty market is currently pegged at $150 million. The market size is growing 10 times per year and is expected to reach $1.6 billion by 2025. The Vanity Wagon tracking and interface are easy to use on both the website and app.
The market size of organic beauty wagon products is currently $42 million. The global market value for natural cosmetics and beauty products is expected to make shift from 30 billion dollars in 2021 to 50.5 billion dollars by 2027. Vanity Wagon believes in sustainable beauty and stands firm in its mission to educate the audience and deliver what’s best for them in the long run.
Vanity Wagon – Founders & Team
Naina Ruhail, Prateek Ruhail & Sahil Shrestha
Vanity Wagon’s founders are Naina Ruhail, Prateek Ruhail, and Sahil Shrestha.
Naina Ruhail is an established media influencer and professional make-up artist in India. She completed her MBA in 2012 and then went on to specialize in beauty & skincare with her education at the London School of Styling and the London School of Makeup. She has 7 years of professional experience in marketing and brand building.
Prateek Ruhail is an MBA from the University of Oxford with a Dean’s Commendation Award. He has 3 years of Project Finance (Legal) and 4 years of Business Management experience. His area of expertise is business strategy and core management. He also has led mega infrastructure project financings, thereby understanding the nuances of financial management in India.
Sahil Shrestha has an educational qualification in management and technology. Post completion of his MBA in 2012 he went on to work in different facets of operations. He is one of the main Vanity Wagon founders, as he leads the operational vertical, bringing the best of his experiences onboard.
The idea was thought of by Naina post her stint in London, UK. The market research and study showed tremendous industry growth and also a promise for a brand like Vanity Wagon to create a niche space for itself.
That being said Prateek and Naina went on to initiate the set-up of Vanity Wagon India when Sahil Shrestha (the operational team leader) jumped in and went on to complete the founding team.
Vanity Wagon – Name & Logo
Vanity Wagon Logo
The team wanted the startup name to focus on two strong points – ‘An Indian woman’s beauty box’ and ‘pan India coverage’. The initial names were around beauty and organic and natural. Several names came up, however, nothing was strong enough to focus on our two strong points – ‘An Indian woman’s beauty box’ and ‘pan India coverage’.
The Vanity Wagon logo and name are based on a beauty box that holds a Woman’s care needs and we want to build the whole personal care space of a Woman’s life with organic–natural products. Hence came the idea of the Vanity Wagon website.
Most often women in India would refer to their beauty arsenal by the term Vanity Kit. Further, the Wagon symbolizes the team traveling from household to household, city to city, and reaching every nook and corner of India, while servicing the personal care needs of an individual.
The idea was taking form while Naina was learning beauty & skincare at the London School of styling and London School of Makeup. She noticed that in the UK shopping for organic and natural beauty care products was easy, as dedicated platforms were offering just organic and natural beauty and personal care products. However, in India the beauty and personal care market is fragmented.
Besides, the market research and study showed tremendous industry growth and also a promise for a brand like Vanity Wagon India, to create a niche space for itself. The idea was validated when the first stage of research was conducted about the beauty market in India.
The organic beauty market with the fast growth of over 52% proved that the consumers of India were making the switch and a marketplace like Vanity Wagon would just make it easier.
With the idea in place, the question in mind was how to go about launching the market, which brands to keep initially, which products and categories to target, and what consumer base to work on.
With several social surveys, A&B testing, and market research the team went on to finalize all these and a point to start from. Assembling the tech team, the base work for the portal – tech, design, graphics, was put in place and the idea was executed with a turnaround time of 4 months.
The launch of the Vanity Wagon website was led across all metro cities in India simultaneously with all the buzz that could be created. With a launch event for the media, blogger collaborations, and social media launch strategy in place, Vanity Wagon went live for India in 1 go and started servicing over 10000 pin codes on Day 1.
Vanity Wagon – Business Model
Vanity Wagon’s business model works on an upfront discount – inventory-driven model. There are many ways that you can avail Vanity wagon coupon code and offers.
Vanity Wagon – User Acquisition
Vanity Wagon Homepage
The first 10 customers came in very early for Vanity Wagon. With a pre-launch plan in place, the company gathered tremendous traction before it went live and the first 10 customers were acquired fairly quickly (in 2 days).
Vanity Wagon heavily relies on customer-centric promotions. It uses social media platforms and also paid and owned media to reach out to the target audience. As said by Prateek, owned media is working remarkably well for Vanity Wagon India.
One of the first campaigns we did worked well for us, owing to the team’s approach to it and the concept – ‘What Organic Means to You’. We did this campaign with bloggers, a few household women, and the real users out there. The idea was to understand what we need to do to make organics popular and the whole campaign was really helpful. With over 100 ideas on what organics can mean we knew which notes to hit and doing so earned great success in the short term post the campaign.
Vanity Wagon – Growth
Vanity Wagon operates out of Gurugram (Corporate Office) and warehouses at present in Delhi With revenue growth of 100% month on month, the company is destined for great success in the long term.
Starting with a limited brand base, it now boasts over 151 brands including some top players in Natural Beauty such as MyGlamm, Ruby’s Organics, Indulge Essentials, Raw Nature, and Biotique.
The User-base continues to grow steadily at 50-70% month on month and is driven by multiple sources online and offline Vanity Wagon works closely with every customer and runs to create a communal feeling wherein every user freely converses with our experts and benefits in every possible way even if there is no transaction involved.
Vanity Wagon – Funding & Investors
Vanity Wagon funding is bootstrapped and is working towards raising early-stage investment in FY 19-20. The shareholders at present are the founding members.
The cash flow for the vanitywagon.in funding has been fairly consistent with great support from our family and friends too. We have managed to create the right buzz in the market and are getting rewarded for that each day with our growing user base and repeat customers – Prateek
Recently in January 2021, the company raised over $200,000 in a seed round that included investors like Agility Venture Partners, Alfa Ventures founder Dhianu Das, actress Anita Hassanandani and angel investor Sanjay Nagi. The most latest funding was raised in October 2021 by the seed round.
The total amount raised by Vanity Wagon is $934k. The Vanity Wagon funding is said to be used to expand its global footprint, onboard more brands, and fulfill a larger consumer base.
Vanity Wagon – Startup Challenges
According to Prateek, the biggest challenge for the Vanity Wagon app is to make the users switch. With so many nice-smelling, beautifully packed chemical products on the market, the majority of the user base is content with buying products that a celebrity endorses. Natural products are comparatively newer to the space of mainstream beauty and are slowly making their place in the market.
There are many platforms offering beauty and platforms online. Some of the Vanity Wagon competitors are the Nykaa platform, Purplle platform, and Dermstore platform.
While all other platforms offer all sorts of beauty and personal care products that may or may not be natural, Vanity Wagon’s USP is a dedicated platform for just natural and organic products.
Vanity Wagon reviews talk about the platform creating a space where an individual only has natural options be it in makeup, skincare, bathing essentials, or wellness. Everything on the portal is non-harmful chemical driven and makes it easy for a consumer to get hooked on clean beauty.
All our competitors motivate us primarily being Nykaa, having done so well in the last few years. They have gone on to create a community for beauty and we look to do that for natural beauty.
Vanity Wagon – Advisors & Mentors
Vanity Wagon India has advisors from different fields and tangents including – tech, marketing, and business strategy.
Col. A S Ruhail (Retd.) with a distinguished career in the Indian Army went on to successfully establish an educational venture. His core being strategy and business implementation, the Vanity Wagon website closely associates with him on major strategy standpoints and benefits in every way possible.
Mr. Mayank Kumar (IIM Lucknow) has a successful enterprise and advises Vanity Wagon on the technical growth plans and strategies.
Mr. Vaibhav Jain is a successful entrepreneur – marketer and angel investor. He offers his support in marketing and brand-building initiatives for Vanity Wagon.
Vanity Wagon – Future Plans
The platform claims to have sold over one lakh products and registered 5 times more growth since 2019. Vanity Wagon has great plans for growth in the future-
The company wants to serve customers through an omnichannel strategy, thereby aiming to open 15 stores by the end of 2022.
Vanity Wagon are targeting to have more than 200 brands associated with them by the end of 2022.
The company is planning to ship Indian Organic beauty products to 5 offshore territories and they are currently planning to start with Singapore and then move forward with other APAC countries.
The company is also planning to take over several brands to increase its business. The brands that are unable to fit the market due to money issues but have great potential in their products are on the target list of vanity wagons.
Vanity Wagon is a platform started by three individuals for the betterment of people. Vanity Wagon is a platform that promotes the growth and sale of nontoxic products. They promote the clean beauty marketplace. The beauty products that are available on their site all fulfill the criteria set by the Vanity Wagon team. Some of the basic information about vanity wagons is shared above.
FAQs
What are clean beauty brands in India?
Clean beauty brands sell products that are in harmony with our body and health and does not have any toxic chemical in them. Some of the most well-known clean beauty brands in India are Butterfly, FAE Beauty, Blur, etc.
Does Vanity Wagon sell original products?
As per the reviews collected by Vanity Wagon, the products sold by them are 100% original. Vanity Wagon is also known as the best platform to sell clean beauty products that do not cause any toxicity to the body and health.
Is brand Myglamm chemical-free?
Yes, the products made by Myglamm consist of no toxic chemicals in them. They are made with 100% free toxic formula.
Is MartiDerm cruelty-free?
Yes, all the products made by Martiderm are cruelty-free as they are not tested on any animal as well as there is no harm done to any animal in their production.
Who are the competitors of Vanity Wagon?
The competitors of Vanitywagon are Nykaa, Purplle, and Dermstore.
Nitin Konde
