Shark Tank India created quite a stir with its four seasons in the country and amongst its people. People love the angst, new ideas of young entrepreneurs, and all the great advice provided by the ‘Sharks’.
The first season premiered on Sony LIV and Sony Entertainment Television from 20 December 2021 to 4 February 2022. The show was produced by Studio NEXT Sony Pictures Television. Apart from the splendid business models and innovative ideas, the main attraction of the show was the ‘Sharks’. With great popularity and success, it has had 4 successful seasons. After a long wait, Shark Tank India Season 5 has been confirmed to return in Sony LIV’s 2025 schedule, bringing investors and start-up founders together once more.
The ‘Sharks’ here are some of the country’s most influential and prominent entrepreneurs and are the ones who have taken charge of investing in the businesses. If the investors are impressed by the products and services, they naturally become a part of their business by investing in them. The show itself is possible because of the investors; they are the one who provides the funds that will take the business of the young entrepreneurs forward.
Now, don’t you want to know about the richest shark on Shark Tank India and the sharks providing a ladder to reach the top to all the young entrepreneurs who dreamt of conquering the business world with their exceptional ideas? Well, here we will talk about the ‘Sharks’, their net worth, and the ones who have supported the exceptional business models of young entrepreneurs on the show. So, without any further ado, let’s get started.
Ritesh Agarwal is the founder and CEO of OYO Rooms. He was the newly added Shark for season 3 of Shark Tank India. He dropped out of college after a few days to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams. His net worth is Rs 14,400 crore as per Hurun Rich List 2024, making him one of the richest sharks in Shark Tank India Season 4.
OYO Rooms, a worldwide hospitality marketplace established in 2012, assists travellers in locating inexpensive accommodations all around the world. This business advertises its leased and franchised hotels on its website so that customers may choose the rooms and living areas they want at a price they can afford.
Ronnie Screwvala is an Indian entrepreneur and Chairperson and Co-Founder of upGrad, an online higher education platform that provides various courses in partnership with universities and industry experts. The valuation of upGrad is $2.25 billion. Ronnie Screwvala is a prominent figure in the Indian business and entertainment industry and has made significant contributions in the fields of media, entertainment, and education. He was a new addition to Shark Tank India’s third season.
He co-founded UTV Software Communications (now part of The Walt Disney Company) in 1990. UTV became one of India’s leading media and entertainment conglomerates. He then founded RSVP Movies in 2017. The company is a private Indian film production and distribution company. RSVP stands for Ronnie ScrewVala Production. Screwvala is also the founder of Unilazer Ventures and Swades Foundation. He took a step back from filmmaking after selling his company in 2012. The net worth of Ronnie Screwvala is $1.55 billion.
Amit Jain is the co-founder and CEO of CarDekho. He replaced Ashneer Grover in the second season of Shark Tank India. Mr. Jain, an IIT graduate, is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in India. The net worth of the shark Amit Jain is $355 million (approx).
Cardekho.com – a car buying and selling platform, was launched in 2008. It went through many ups and downs until a Series-A funding of $15 Million was secured in 2013. Now Cardekho is a unicorn with a valuation of over $1.2 billion. Amit Jain reportedly charges INR 7 lakh per episode.
Deepinder Goyal
Name
Deepinder Goyal
Company
Zomato
Net Worth
$1.8 billion (Rs 15,274 crore)
Deepinder Goyal – Shark Tank India Judges
Deepinder Goyal is the co-founder and CEO of Zomato. He was the newly added Shark for season 3 of Shark Tank India. Mr. Goyal has graduated from IIT Delhi. His company, Zomato, is a publicly listed company on the National Stock Exchange of India. Zomato’s subsidiaries are Blinkit and Urbanspoon. As of December 2024, Zomato has a Market Cap of $32.71 billion. The current net worth of Deepinder Goyal stands at $1.8 billion. He was one of the richest sharks in Shark Tank India season 3.
One of the most extensive and user-friendly apps for locating nearby eateries where you can eat or place an online food order is Zomato. In order to gather factual information on restaurants, it also provides menus, reviews, and ratings. The company became a unicorn in February 2018.
Deepinder Goyal is not part of Shark Tank India season 4. While rumours suggested his exit was due to Swiggy’s sponsorship, the show’s makers clarified that his absence was due to scheduling conflicts, and they would be happy to have him on future seasons.
Ashneer Grover was the managing director and founder of BharatPe, an Indian fintech company that was founded in 2018. This UPI-based app became a Unicorn in the year 2021 and currently, the value of the company is around $2.9 billion. The net worth of Ashneer Grover is $108 million.
BharatPe is an acquaintance of small-scale businesses and provides them with their payment service. Grover’s BharatPe gives intense competition to other online payment apps like Mobikwik, Paytm, and PhonePe. Ashneer Grover got INR 10 lakh per episode. However, he discontinued as a shark after season one.
Apart from BharatPe, he has also invested in companies like OTO Capital, The Whole Truth, IndiaGold, and Front Row. He has invested in various startups on the show, likeTagZ Foods, Zoro, Fello,etc. Ashneer Grover announced his resignation from the BharatPe on 28 February 2022. He is currently the co-founder of Third Unicorn, Crickpe. The company provides a cricket fantasy gaming platform. The company allows players to participate in public, private, and “mega contests” to earn cash prizes.
Aman Gupta
Name
Aman Gupta
Company
boAt
Net Worth
$87 million (Rs 720 crore)
Aman Gupta – Shark Tank India Judges
Aman Gupta is the co-founder and CMO of India’s biggest wearable brand boAt. The company has taken not only the country but the whole world by storm with its affordable and good-quality audio ear-wear. The net worth of the shark Aman Gupta is approximately $87 million.
boAt has captured the Indian electronic gadgets market brilliantly. He co-founded boAt in the year 2016 and has transformed the company into one of the biggest audio brands since then. He has invested in various startups on the show likeNuutjob, Altor, Revamp Moto, Ariro,etc. Aman Gupta received more than INR 9 lakh per episode in season 2.
Namita Thapar is a businesswoman who is leading the pharmaceutical industry with Emcure Pharmaceuticals. It is a multinational pharma company founded in the year 1983 and Thapar is currently the CEO of the company. She has invested in various startups on the show likeBrainwired, Sunfox Technologies, Kabaddi Adda, Sneakare, etc. Namita Thapar charged approximatelyINR 8 lakh per episode.
Peyush Bansal made his name by launching India’s biggest eyewear retail chain Lenskart. It was founded in the year 2010 and has been increasing the bar simultaneously. The current value of the company is $5.6 billion. The eyewear industry in India has revolutionized because of Lenskart and has been turning heads worldwide. He has invested in various startups on the show likeLoka, Hair Originals, Isak Fragrances, etc. Peyush Bansal got INR 7 lakh per episode. The net worth of Peyush Bansal stands at $72 million (approx).
Azhar Iqubal is the co-founder and Chairman of the well-known news aggregation app, Inshorts. He is a dropout from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). With Deepit Purkayastha and Anunay Arunav, he founded Inshorts as a Facebook page, which was introduced in 2013. The Inshorts app is currently worth around $550 million. Azhar was a new addition to Shark Tank India season 3 and will continue as a shark in season 4.
Vineeta Singh is an entrepreneur who proves that following your dreams with courage is what you need. She is the CEO and Co-Founder of Sugar Cosmetics, one of the largest Indian brands of cosmetics that is growing at an intense speed. She is an Alumni of IIT Madras and IIM Ahmedabad, the amazing part is she rejected a INR 1 crore job offer to follow her dream of running her own company.
Sugar was founded in the year 2012 and is a cruelty-free makeup brand that has captured the heart of the Indian audience. The current value of Sugar Cosmetics is $700 million (approx). She has invested in various startups on the show like Booz, Humpy Farms, Wakao Foods, etc. Vineeta Singh charged INR 5 lakh per episode.
Anupam Mittal is another popular shark in the business reality show. He is the founder and CEO of Shaadi.com and Makaan.com and is said to be one of the top angel investors in the country. The net worth of Anupam Mittal stands at $21.81 million. After graduating from Boston College, Mittal founded Shaadi.com in the year 1997 as Sagaai.com and changed its name in 2001. The total number of users of Shaadi.com in 2023 is estimated to be 35 million.
He has also invested in startups like OLA. In Shark Tank, he has invested in various startups on the show likeLysto, VivaLyf, Bamboo India, Tweek Labs, etc.Anupam Mittal received more than INR 7 Lakh per episode.
Ghazal Alagh founded one of the most popular personal products brands, Mamaearth, in the year 2016. The brand specializes in chemical-free baby-care products, and it now manufactures personal products for everyone. Mamaearth entered the Unicorn Club in the year 2022. The company launched its IPO on November 7, 2023. Ghazal Alagh got INR 8 lakh per episode. However, she discontinued the show after Shark Tank India season 1.
Radhika Gupta is a successful entrepreneur and investor. She was a new addition to the Shark Tank India season 3 judging panel. She has been the Managing Director and CEO of Edelweiss Mutual Fund since 2017, and she has helped the company expand to become one of India’s top mutual fund houses. Under Gupta’s leadership, Edelweiss Mutual Fund has grown into a leading player in the Indian mutual fund industry. The company has launched a number of innovative products and services and has consistently outperformed the benchmark indices. The net worth of Radhika Gupta is Rs 41 Crores.
Edelweiss Mutual Fund has total assets under management (AUM) of Rs 1,64,554 crores. It manages 399 schemes, including 26 Equity schemes, 16 Debt schemes, 4 Hybrid schemes, and 2 Money Market schemes.
Varun Dua is an Indian entrepreneur and the founder of Acko, an insurance technology (insurtech) startup that provides digital insurance solutions for individuals and businesses. He is recognized as a pioneer in the Indian insurtech space and has been credited with transforming the insurance industry through innovative technology and customer-centric approaches. The valuation of Acko Insurance is $1.4 billion.
Varun Dua was introduced as a new judge to the Shark Tank India season 3 panel. Dua’s entrepreneurial acumen and his commitment to innovation have earned him recognition as a leading figure in the Indian startup ecosystem. He has been featured in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 India list and has received numerous awards for his contributions to the insurance industry.
Kunal Bahl is an Indian entrepreneur known for co-founding Snapdeal, a leading e-commerce platform, and Titan Capital, a prominent venture capital firm. Bahl has significantly impacted the Indian startup ecosystem by investing in companies like Ola and Mamaearth. He also holds key positions in organizations such as NASSCOM and the National Startup Advisory Council, showcasing his influence in India’s business landscape. Kunal Bahl is the newest shark on Shark Tank India season 4.
Kunal has received various prestigious awards including Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year (Startup), Fortune Global 40 under 40, and The Economic Times Entrepreneur of the Year, among others.
Viraj Bahl is the Founder and Managing Director of Veeba (VRB Consumer Products Pvt. Ltd.), a leading consumer food brand. He has joined the cast of Shark Tank India Season 4. Viraj is known for his deep understanding of the food industry. He is excited to share his knowledge and mentor entrepreneurs with great, scalable ideas.
His experience in building a successful business will help guide those looking for investments and advice. Viraj has studied Industrial Marine Engineering at Singapore Polytechnic.
Mohit Yadav is the Co-Founder of Minimalist, a popular skincare and haircare brand known for its clean, transparent, and science-backed formulations. He has joined the cast of Shark Tank India Season 5. Mohit is recognised for his deep understanding of the beauty and consumer products industry and his commitment to honest, research-based innovation.
His entrepreneurial journey spans ventures like Freewill and Oto.com, and senior roles at CarDekho, Deloitte, and Credit Suisse. Mohit is a qualified Chartered Accountant, holding an ACA in Finance and Accounts from The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, where he was a gold medalist.
His experience in scaling successful businesses will help him guide and mentor budding entrepreneurs seeking both investment and strategic insight.
Srikanth Bolla
Name
Srikanth Bolla
Company
Bollant Industries
Net Worth
–
Srikanth Bolla – Shark Tank India Judges
Srikanth Bolla is the Founder and Chairman of Bollant Industries, a company based in Hyderabad. It makes eco-friendly and biodegradable packaging products. He has joined the cast of Shark Tank India Season 4. Srikanth is known for supporting people with disabilities and building a business that helps the environment.
Born blind, Srikanth faced many challenges but stayed determined. He studied Management Science at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and was the first visually impaired student in that course.
Srikanth is excited and all set to guide new founders and support business ideas that are both smart and socially responsible.
Vikas D Nahar is an Indian businessman who has made a name for himself in the healthy food industry. He is the founder of Happilo International, a company that specializes in offering high-quality dried fruits, nuts, seeds, dates, hampers, and more. Despite facing numerous rejections, Vikas persevered and successfully raised funds for Happilo, which has now become a well-known health food brand.
Nahar was the guest shark for the grand finale of Shark Tank India Season 2. A special “digital-only” episode on SonyLiv called “Gateway to Shark Tank India 2” aired, wherein aspiring business owners got the chance to interact with Vikas and other sharks and pitch their ideas to them.
Conclusion
Shark Tank created a huge buzz in the country and has become a very popular business reality show in India. Various entrepreneurs from different parts of the country came here to showcase their innovative business plans in front of the sharks in the hope of getting investments for their companies. The Shark Tank India judges provided investments to their preferred business ideas and gave them a chance to flourish with their ideas. Season three of this show is anticipated to be bigger, with quality judges and creative business ideas.
FAQs
Who is the richest shark in Shark Tank India?
The richest sharks on Shark Tank India include Ritesh Agarwal, Ronnie Screwvala, Amit Jain, Aman Gupta, Anupam Mittal, and more.
Who were the newly added Sharks in Shark Tank India Season 3?
Ritesh Agarwal (Founder of OYO Rooms), Deepinder Goyal (Co-founder of Zomato), Azhar Iqubal (Co-founder of Inshorts), Radhika Gupta (CEO of Edelweiss Mutual Fund), Varun Dua (Founder of Acko), and Ronnie Screwvala (Co-founder of UpGrad) were the newly added sharks.
How much do Shark Tank India judges earn per episode?
The sharks earn between INR 5-10 lakhs per episode, with varying rates depending on their profile and involvement.
Will Deepinder Goyal return to Shark Tank India season 4?
Deepinder Goyal is not part of Shark Tank India season 4. While rumours suggested his exit was due to Swiggy’s sponsorship, the show’s makers clarified that his absence was due to scheduling conflicts, and they would be happy to have him on future seasons.
Is there a Billionaire in Shark Tank India?
Deepinder Goyal, the founder of Zomato, has a net worth of $1.7 billion, and Ronnie Screwvala, with a net worth of $1.53 billion, has been among the billionaires featured on Shark Tank India in previous seasons.
What is Aman Gupta net worth?
The net worth of Aman Gupta is $93 million (INR 720 Crores).
What is Anupam Mittal net worth?
The net worth of Anupam Mittal is $21.8 million (INR 185 Crores).
Who is the newest shark in Shark Tank India season 4?
Kunal Bahl, co-founder of Snapdeal and Titan Capital, and Viraj Bahl, Founder and Managing Director of Veeba, have joined the panel of judges on Shark Tank India Season 4. In March 2025, Srikanth Bolla, Founder and Chairman of Bollant Industries, also joined the judges’ panel.
The Shark Tank India judges each have an impressive resume full of varied skills and noteworthy accomplishments from their respective fields. Aside from their roles as judges on the show, these individuals have made significant contributions to a variety of industries, demonstrating remarkable leadership, creativity, and entrepreneurship.
Their travels are engraved with stories of victory and difficulties, capturing the essence of perseverance and vision. From pioneering ventures to leading multimillion-dollar enterprises, their footprints are felt across industries, making an everlasting influence on the Indian economic landscape. Their contributions will inspire future generations and pave the way for a more prosperous and promising future for humankind as the journey progresses.
Achievements of Shark Tank India Judges – Ashneer Grover
As the ex-founder and Managing Director of BharatPe, Ashneer Grover has left an indelible mark on India’s fintech landscape. A graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Grover’s journey includes stints at renowned companies like Kotak Investment Bank, Grofers, PC Jeweller Ltd., and American Express. His brainchild, the BharatPe app, launched in 2018, has garnered over one crore downloads on the Play Store.
Grover’s accolades include:
The Entrepreneur of the Year award in January 2021
The Young Achiever’s award was also bestowed upon him in January 2021
Vineeta Singh
Name
Vinita Singh
Born
1983
Position
Co-founder & CEO of Sugar Cosmetics
Achievements of Shark Tank India Judges – Vineeta Singh
Co-founder & CEO of Sugar Cosmetics, Vineeta Singh, has been instrumental in shaping the beauty industry in India.
Vineeta’s entrepreneurial journey has been decorated with numerous accolades:
The Startup of the Year 2019 by Entrepreneur Awards, Delhi
Singh’s leadership prowess landed her on the cover of Forbes Most Powerful Women (MPW) in Business in December 2021
She was recognized in the Economic Times’ 40 Under 40 list in 2021
Aman Gupta
Name
Aman Gupta
Born
4 March 1982
Position
Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of boAt
Achievements of Shark Tank India Judges – Aman Gupta
A powerhouse in the tech industry, Aman Gupta is the co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer at boAt. Gupta’s entrepreneurial spirit has been lauded with several prestigious awards, such as the Businessworld Young Entrepreneur Award in 2019 and the Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2020. Under his leadership, the boat achieved the distinction of being named the World’s Top 5 Wearable Brand in both 2020 and 2021.
Aman Gupta’s other achievements include:
In 2019, he was on the list of Entrepreneur India Tech 25 Class
In 2020, he was the winner of Super 30 CMOs
In 2020, he was on the list of 40 under 40 Achievers by Businessworld, The Economic Times
In 2021, he won the Lokmat Most Stylish Entrepreneur of the Year
In 2021, he was on the list of 40 Under 40 list of Economic Times
Achievements of Shark Tank India Judges – Anupam Mittal
As the founder & CEO of People Group and Shaadi.com, Anupam Mittal has revolutionized the online matchmaking industry. His impact extends beyond business, as he has been recognized among the top 25 people frequently searched by The Week magazine and listed among India’s 50 Most Powerful People by Business Week.
Anupam Mittal’s contributions have earned him below accolades:
The Entrepreneur of the Year award by IT People
The Karamveer Puraskar
Namita Thapar
Name
Namita Thapar
Born
21 March 1977
Position
Executive Director of Emcure Pharmaceuticals
Achievements of Shark Tank India Judges – Namita Thapar
Namita Thapar, Executive Director of Emcure Pharmaceuticals, is a trailblazer in the pharmaceutical sector.
Namita’s exemplary leadership has garnered numerous achievements:
Recognition in The Economic Times Women Ahead List 2017
The Economic Times’ 40 Under Forty
India’s Hottest Young Business Leaders List 2017
The Barclays Hurun Next Gen Leader Recognition and
The World Women Leadership Congress Super Achiever Award
Achievements of Shark Tank India Judges – Gazal Alagh
Co-founder and Chief Mama of Mamaearth, Ghazal Alagh, has made significant strides in the realm of sustainable and natural beauty products.
Gazal Alagh’s entrepreneurial journey has been punctuated with achievements such as receiving:
The Best Brand of the Year award for Mamaearth in 2018-2019
Named one of India’s forty under forty achievers in 2019.
Alagh’s commitment to excellence was further underscored by the Super StartUps Asia Award in 2019.
Ritesh Agarwal
Name
Ritesh Agarwal
Born
16 November 1993
Position
Founder and CEO of OYO Rooms
Achievements of Shark Tank India Judges – Ritesh Agarwal
Founder and CEO of OYO Rooms, Ritesh Agarwal‘s entrepreneurial journey began at a young age and has catapulted him to global recognition. His remarkable achievements include being the first Asian resident to win the ’20 Under 20’ Thiel Fellowship and being listed in Forbes’s “30 Under 30” in the consumer tech sector. Agarwal’s innovative approach to hospitality has redefined the concept of budget accommodation worldwide.
Ritesh’s other achievements include:
Top 50 Entrepreneurs by TATA First Dot Awards in 2013
Listed as “One of the 8 Hottest Teenage Startup Founders in the World” by Business Insider in 2013
Received TiE – Lumis Entrepreneurial Excellence Award in 2014
Young Entrepreneur Award by Business World in 2018
Azhar Iqubal
Name
Azhar Iqubal
Born
1993
Position
Co-founder and CEO of Inshorts
Achievements of Shark Tank India Judges – Azhar Iqubal
Azhar Iqubal, co-founder and CEO of Inshorts, is a visionary entrepreneur who has disrupted the media landscape with his innovative news aggregation platform.
Iqubal’s achievements include:
Business World 40 under 40
Fortune India 40 under 40
Business World Young Entrepreneur Award
The Most Enterprising Brands
Leaders of Asia Award
Forbes India 30 under 30
Forbes Asia 30 under 30
Ronnie Screwvala
Name
Ronnie Screwvala
Born
8 September 1962
Position
Co-founder of upGrad
Achievements of Shark Tank India Judges – Ronnie Screwvala
Co-founder of upGrad, Ronnie Screwvala, has been at the forefront of India’s digital education revolution. His contributions extend beyond business, as evidenced by the Swades Foundation, which aimed to lift a million people out of poverty. U Sports focused on nurturing talent in Kabaddi, E-Sports, and Football.
Ronnie’s achievements include:
Esquire listed him as one of the 75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century in 2008
The Time 100 placed him 78th out of the 100 most influential people worldwide
Fortune Magazine ranked him as one of the 25 Most Powerful People in Asia.
Radhika Gupta
Name
Radhika Gupta
Born
14 September 1983
Position
Managing Director and CEO of Edelweiss Mutual Funds
Achievements of Shark Tank India Judges – Radhika Gupta
Managing Director and CEO of Edelweiss Mutual Funds, Radhika Gupta, is a stalwart in the finance sector and is recognized for her exemplary leadership and contributions. Gupta’s work in the finance sector has been acknowledged with various awards, including:
LinkedIn Top Voices in India −2021 in Finance & Economy in 2020
Fortune India’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business in 2020
Economic Times 40 Under 40 Business Leaders Award in 2021
The Impact Creator Awards 2021, presented by the Governor of Maharashtra in 2021
Business Today: Most Powerful Women in Indian Business Awards
Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum- 2022
CII Young Women Leader of the Year from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in 2022
Forbes Women Power: Self-Made Women by Forbes India in 2022
Business Book of the Year: Self Help (Limitless) by FICCI Publishing, awarded in 2023
Achievements of Shark Tank India Judges – Deepinder Goyal
Deepinder Goyal is the co-founder and CEO of Zomato, a leading food delivery and restaurant discovery company. He started Zomato in 2008 with Pankaj Chaddah. Before Zomato, he worked at Bain & Company as a consultant. Deepinder is an IIT Delhi graduate and has played a key role in Zomato’s global growth.
Deepinder Goyal won the ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ award. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw presented him with the award at the NDTV Indian of the Year—2024 event.
Achievements of Shark Tank India Judges – Peyush Bansal
Peyush Bansal is the CEO and Co-Founder of Lenskart. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering — IT, Control, and Automation from McGill University. After a brief stint as a Program Manager at Microsoft, Bansal realized his desire to make a significant impact and returned to India to address the problem of vision correction. Peyush Bansal has been awarded with various accolades, some of his achievements are as follows:
Awarded Innovator of the Year Award at NDTV Indian of The Year Awards 2023-24
Co-founder and CEO of Acko, Co-founder of Coverfox & Glitterbug Technologies
Achievements of Shark Tank India Judges – Varun Dua
Varun Dua is the CEO and the founder of the company, Acko. He completed his education at MICA, Ahmedabad, and the University of Mumbai. After finishing his graduation, Varun served as a trainee at Leo Burnett Advertising for less than a year. He then started his career as a marketing manager at Tata AIG Life Insurance and Franklin Templeton Investments. Varun then founded Coverfox Insurance Broking Pvt. Ltd. Before he founded Coverfox in 2013, Varun founded Glitterbug Technologies. Varun Dua holds a prominent role as one of the Sharks on Season 3 of Shark Tank, adding his expertise and insights to the entrepreneurial landscape.
His achievements include:
Featured in Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list for Finance.
Won the Global New Venture Challenge in 2020, receiving $20,000 for his startup idea.
Recognized as an influential entrepreneur by several business publications.
Achievements of Shark Tank India Judges – Kunal Bahl
Kunal is the co-founder of Snapdeal. Bahl was a student at the University of Pennsylvania, where he completed a degree in Systems Engineering. He is also an alumnus of The Wharton School where he studied Marketing and Operations Strategy and also did Executive Program in Marketing from Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management.
Bahl was also there in the Jerome Fischer M&T Program. In his professional career, Kunal started as an Independent Director of Piramal Enterprises Limited before co-founding Snapdeal in 2010. Bahl also co-founded Titan Capital in 2011 and AceVector Group in June 2022. Thus, Kunal can be summed up as an investor and entrepreneur who aims to create impact through entrepreneurship.
Kunal Bhal has been awarded with the following awards:
BMA Entrepreneur of the Year 2014
ET Top 50 Entrepreneurs of India 2014
Ranked 25 on Fortune 40 under 40 most influential business leaders list 2014
EY Entrepreneur of the Year – Startup 2014
Nasscom NextGen Entrepreneur 2014
The Economic Times Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2015
AIMA Transformational Business Leader of the Year
Indian Affairs Business Leader of the Year 2015
The Joseph Wharton Award for Young Leadership 2018
Achievements of Shark Tank India Judges – Viraj Bahl
Viraj Bahl is an innovative young entrepreneur with a passion for food. Viraj was born into a long line of entrepreneurs. He wanted to prove to his father that he could be more than just his son.
Viraj had a lifelong passion for working in the food industry. From a failed restaurant business to building an INR 1,000 crore brand and becoming a new panelist on Shark Tank India, Viraj Bahl is a visionary entrepreneur whose passion for food turned into a national success. With much hard work, along with a few roadblocks, today Veeba stands as one of the largest homegrown sauce and condiments brands in India.
Viraj’s achievements include:
Entrepreneur of the Year 2020 – Economic Times Awards for Innovation and Excellence in Indian Food Industry.
Top 50 Most Admired Entrepreneurs in India, 2018 Business Today for visionary leadership in building Veeba Foods.
Best Food Processing Brand, 2019 – Veeba, the Indian Food Forum has given an award that recognizes its high-quality and innovative offerings.
Sustainable Business Excellence 2021 Winner from FSSAI for Veeba’s commitment towards sustainability and healthy food production practices.
Fastest-Growing FMCG Brand, 2022 – Economic Times Edge Awarded to Veeba for fast growth and impact in the FMCG sector.
Achievements of Shark Tank India Judges – Vikas D Nahar
Born in Bangalore, Vikas D Nahar comes from a farming family background that grew pepper and coffee. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Computer Application from Bangalore University and began his career as a Senior Import Manager (Asia) at Jain Group Pvt. Ltd. Afterward, he pursued a Master of Business Administration in Marketing from the Symbiosis Centre For Management and Human Resource Development in Pune.
Following his MBA, Vikas joined Satvikk Speciality Foods Pvt. Ltd. as the Managing Director. Satvikk Speciality Foods is a health-focused food store that opened its first branch in Bangalore in December 2011. Vikas served as its Managing Director for almost five years. His experience at Satvikk finally helped him establish Happilo, the popular gourmet healthy food brand, in 2016.
Nahar has received numerous prestigious awards and recognitions, including:
Entrepreneur of the Year 2021 by the Indian Achievers Forum
Shark Tank India is an Indian business reality television series based on the popular global format Shark Tank. It has budding entrepreneurs pitching their business ideas to a panel of potential investors called ‘Sharks’ to secure investment deals.
Who will be the sharks in Shark Tank India?
Vineeta Singh, Peeyush Bansal, Namita Thapar, Anupam Mittal, Amit Jain, Deepinder Goyal, Varun Dua, Radhika Gupta, Ronnie Screwvala, Azhar Iquabal, Ritesh Agarwal, and Aman Gupta are the sharks in Shark Tank India. Season four of the show will feature two new sharks, Kunal Bahl and Viraj Bahl.
When will Shark Tank premiere in India?
Shark Tank Season Four premiered on Sony LIV on January 06, 2025.
In a world where each individual is a unique mosaic of experiences, passions, and goals, the path to success is as varied as the individuals themselves. The many educational backgrounds people bring are crucial to this variation fabric.
Every choice made on Shark Tank India is based on a wealth of experience and expertise fashioned by the different educational backgrounds of its respected judges. These diverse fields provide a thorough understanding of business principles and invaluable insights into various industries and market dynamics.
In this post, we’ll look at all Shark Tank India judges’ educational backgrounds and how they’ve applied their qualifications and expertise in the real world.
Vineeta Singh was born in Anand, Gujarat, India, in 1983 and is 40 years old as of 2023. She completed her schooling at Delhi Public School R. K. Puram, New Delhi, from 1987 to 2001. She graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, with a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering. While at IIT Madras, she did her three-month summer internship with I.T.C. Limited in Kolkata. In 2005, she graduated from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad with an MBA She worked as an intern for three months at Deutsche Bank in both London and New York while she studied for her MBA. Vineeta Singh worked on projects with the strategic equity transaction group in New York and the emerging markets structuring team in London during her internship.
Delhi University, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Indian School of Business, Kellogg Graduate School of Management
Shark Tank India Judges – Aman Gupta
Aman Gupta finished his education at Delhi Public School, R. K. Puram, New Delhi. He later pursued a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons.) degree at Shaheed Bhagat Singh College. He attended the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India from 1999 to 2002 to pursue his studies in accounting, finance, and chartered accountancy. He then enrolled in the Indian School of Business to pursue an M.B.A. in Finance and Strategy. Following that, in 2011, he enrolled in Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management’s student exchange program to pursue an M.B.A. in General Management and Marketing.
MBA in Operations & Strategic Management (Boston College, US)
Shark Tank India Judges – Anupam Mittal
Anupam Mittal’s widespread fame stems from his position as CEO and founder of Shaadi.com and the People Group. Having started internet enterprises before the internet bubble, Mittal is among the pioneering technology-driven entrepreneurs in India. In addition, he has produced Bollywood films Flavors and 99 under the banner of his parent firm, People Group. He was born in Mumbai, India, and completed his education at Jai Hind College. He earned his M.B.A. degree in operations and strategic management from Boston College in Massachusetts.
Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Duke’s Fuqua School of Business
Shark Tank India Judges – Namita Thapar
Emcure Pharmaceuticals’ Executive Director and Shark Tank India investor Namita Thapar is an incredibly successful businesswoman. Her professional accomplishments are matched by her ownership of luxurious mansions, a fleet of exquisite cars, and a net worth in the crores. She finished her primary and secondary schooling at a school in Pune. Namita gave up all extracurricular activities in school to focus solely on academics. She was an excellent student who consistently ranked top in her class. Following her education, Namita enrolled in the B. Com. program at Savitribai Phule Pune University in Pune. She also pursued her ICAI chartered accountancy degree in the interim. Namita then attended Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business in Durham, North Carolina, to get an MBA.
Peyush Bansal, born in Delhi, India, began his education at Don Bosco School in New Delhi. Peyush Bansal has demonstrated his inventive energy and passion for value creation through his entrepreneurial experience. His academic aspirations led him to prestigious schools such as McGill University, where he earned a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering. He then enrolled in the Management Programme for Entrepreneurs and Family Businesses (MPEFB) at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
Amit Jain received his early education at St. Xavier’s School in Jaipur. After finishing school, Amit passed the IIT entrance exam and was accepted into IIT Delhi in 1999.
College Dropout, Sacred Heart School, and St. Johns Senior Secondary School
Shark Tank India Judges – Ritesh Agarwal
Ritesh attended Sacred Heart School in Rayagada, Odisha, and later graduated from St. Johns Senior Secondary School in Meerut Cantt, Uttar Pradesh, India. Then, to prepare for the IIT entrance exam, he traveled to Kota, Rajasthan. Following that, he enrolled in the Indian School of Business and Finance in Delhi’s University of London International Program in 2011 and eventually dropped out. He became the first Asian recipient of the $100,000 Thiel Fellowship grant, equivalent to Rs. 55 Lakh at the time.
During his school years, Deepinder Goyal performed below average and had difficulty passing his classes until he reached class 8. For the first time, Deepinder placed third in the class during his first semester of study sessions in class 8 when one of his teachers provided him with a solved answer sheet. Inspired by the praise he got from his parents and professors, he decided to continue his studies henceforth diligently. After two years of improved grades, his parents moved him to D.A.V. College in Chandigarh for classes XI and XII, where he studied science.
He was able to pass the Indian Institutes of Technology, Joint Entrance Examination on his first attempt despite the difficulties he encountered throughout his academic career. He subsequently attended the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, to pursue an engineering degree.
Mathematics and Computer Science, IIT Delhi (Dropped out)
Shark Tank India Judges – Azhar Iqubal
Azhar Iqubal is an Indian entrepreneur who co-founded and serves as the CEO of the news app Inshorts. After completing his schooling, he began preparing for the IIT JEE. He began studying at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi in 2009, pursuing engineering and computer science. In 2012, he left IIT to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams.
B.S.E in Entrepreneurship, Operation & Information Management, Wharton B.A.S in Engineering
Shark Tank India Judges – Kunal Bahl
Kunal Bahl grew up in India and went to Delhi Public School R.K. Puram for his early education. He later studied at the University of Pennsylvania, where he joined the prestigious Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology. He secured two bachelor’s degrees—one in Entrepreneurship, Operations & Information Management from The Wharton School and another in Engineering from the School of Engineering and Applied Science respectively. He also completed an executive marketing program at the Kellogg School of Management to further build his business skills.
Ronnie Screwvala’s name is synonymous with innovation and achievement in the realm of educational technology. As the founder of upGrad, he has transformed online education in India, enabling thousands of students to advance their careers and thrive in the digital era. He completed his education at Mumbai’s Cathedral and John Connon Schools before earning his degree from Sydenham College. His father worked in the film business, instilling a passion for entertainment and media in him from an early age. Ronnie Screwvala’s parents had other plans for him. However, he still aspired to start his own business while attending university in Mumbai.
MBA from Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad
Shark Tank India Judges – Varun Dua
Varun Dua is the founder and CEO of Acko. He is also the owner of CoverFox. Having worked in the insurance industry for over a decade, Varun was responsible for technology-enabled efficient customer service and marketing analytics for primary business acquisition. He earned a commerce degree from the R. A. Podar College Of Commerce & Economics in Mumbai, Maharashtra. After graduation, he took the C.A.T. exam. Later, he earned a master’s in Strategic Marketing and Communications from Mudra Institute of Communications in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Industrial Marine Engineering at Singapore Polytechnic
Shark Tank India Judges – Viraj Bahl
Viraj Bahl is the Founder and Managing Director of Veeba (VRB Consumer Products Pvt. Ltd.), a leading consumer food brand. He will join the panel of Sharks forShark Tank India season 4. Viraj is known for his deep understanding of the food industry. He is excited to share his knowledge and mentor entrepreneurs with great, scalable ideas.
His experience in building a successful business will help guide those looking for investments and advice. Viraj has studied Industrial Marine Engineering at Singapore Polytechnic.
Managing Director and CEO of Edelweiss Mutual Funds
Education
B.Sc in Economics
Shark Tank India Judges – Radhika Gupta
Radhika Gupta is the managing director and CEO of Edelweiss Mutual Fund, which established a mutual fund company worth Rs 1 trillion in just five years. Due to her father’s transferable employment, Radhika Gupta finished her education at various institutions across multiple nations. She graduated from Delhi Public School in India, the American International School in Abuja, Nigeria, and Marymount International School in Rome, Italy.
She later graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School with a B.S.E. in economics in 2005. She also finished the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology.
Ashneer Grover is a graduate of IIM Ahmedabad and IIT Delhi. Ashneer Grover finished his schooling in Delhi. Following that, he received his B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology. While studying at IIT Delhi, he was chosen for a student exchange program at the National Institute of Applied Sciences, known as INSA Lyon, France. This engineering school is among the most prestigious and largest in Europe. With a €6,000 grant from the French Embassy, he relocated to INSA Lyon in 2002. Grover then attended the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad in 2004 to pursue an MBA in finance and graduated in the year 2006.
Ghazal Alagh is an Indian businesswoman and the Chief Mama of Mamaearth, a natural, toxins-free cosmetics brand. Ghazal Alagh graduated from Punjab University with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Applications. 2013 she completed a Summer Intensive Course in Modern Art in Design and Applied Arts. She also completed a rigorous figurative painting course at the New York Academy of Art that same year.
Bangalore University, Symbiosis Centre for Management & Human Resource Development, Pune
Shark Tank India Judges – Vikas D Nahar
Co-founder and CEO of Happilo, Vikas D. Nahar is a Special Guest Judge on Shark Tank India. Nahar hails from a farming family that produces coffee and pepper. After completing his schooling in Bangalore, he attended Bangalore University to acquire a Bachelor’s in Computer Applications in 2005. After that, he completed his MBA in marketing at Pune, Maharashtra’s Symbiosis Centre for Management & Human Resource Development (SCMHRD).
In conclusion, the judges of Shark Tank India have a variety of educational backgrounds, which emphasizes the value of interdisciplinary knowledge and practical experience in the business world. Each judge contributes a distinct viewpoint influenced by their academic journey, drawing from famous institutions such as IITs and IIMs as well as international universities and specialized programs.
FAQs
Who is Aman Gupta?
Aman Gupta is the co-founder and Chief Marketing officer of the company boAt.
What is the education of Peyush Bansal?
Peyush Bansal began his education at Don Bosco School in New Delhi. His academic aspirations led him to prestigious schools such as McGill University, where he earned a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering. He then enrolled in the Management Programme for Entrepreneurs and Family Businesses (MPEFB) at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
Who is Vineeta Singh?
Vineeta Singh is the co-founder and CEO of Sugar Cosmetics.
What is Shark Tank India?
Shark Tank India is a platform that provides opportunities to new entrepreneurs who will be able to entice the sharks with their ideas. The Sharks will invest in those businesses that they will find suitable.
One of the most important business sectors in the circuit is movies. With movies, one could earn millions. However, this is a very difficult line to proceed as a businessman. Well, Ronnie Screwvala is one of the biggest personalities in the Bollywood circuit. He is the founder and CEO of the famous UTV Group. His companies include UTV Software, Bloomberg UTV, UTV Motion Pictures, and many more to name. Read this article to learn about the story of Ronnie Screwvala.
Rohinton Soli Screwvala Quick Facts
Name
Rohinton Soli Screwvala
Born
8 September 1962 – Bombay, Maharashtra, India
Education
Sydenham College of Commerce & Economics
Citizenship
Indian
Title
Founder of UTV Group (Now Walt Disney India), Founder Trustee of Swades Foundation, Founder of Unilazer Ventures, Board of Advisor AIESEC India, Founder of RSVP Movies, Co-Founder of UpGrad
Ronnie is Parsi by blood. He had completed his studies at Cathedral and John Connon School. His father was an employee of British firms J L Morrison and Smith. He is married to Zarina Mehta. Ronnie met her during his initial days at the theatre with Pearl Padamsee.
From childhood, he had a keen interest in theatre and has been a part of the acting crew in a few professional plays with Bombay theatre. He has worked with some big names like Pearl and Alyque Padamsee. He has produced over 70 films, and some of his famous works include Rang De Basanti, The Namesake, Khosla Ka Ghosla, Jodhaa Akbar, and many more iconic movies.
Ronnie Screwvala – Initial Days
His actual entrepreneurial journey started way before UTV came into the circuit. During his initial days, his father wanted him to become a Chartered Accountant. But, he was sure that business was the field that attracted him. Hence, to achieve that, he was looking for business opportunities. Later on, while he was on a trip to England, he got a chance to visit a hairbrush factory. He came across two discarded fully functional automatic toothbrush-making machines. Hence, to open up the doors of business, he purchased it. As soon as he returned to India, he started a business. The business was concerned with making toothbrushes. Many years later, the business became one of the largest producers of toothbrushes and was supplying goods to mega-brands like Colgate.
Apart from the toothbrush business, he had started his own cable network company by the name of Network. During those days, he used to go door to door and ask the residents to sign up for the network. This was a good business idea because, at the time when Doordarshan was the only channel available, this network provided a three-hour video channel providing movies. Initially, this business started with just 30 houses. Later on, it expanded to popular places like Cuffe Parade, Colaba, NApeansea Road, Breach Candy, and Hanging Gardens within a short period.
Ronnie’s idea was way ahead of the time. Well, it is very surprising to see that at a young age, Ronnie understood the importance of good service. He made sure that his services were for the betterment of the entertainment sector as he provided his customers with family-oriented content with good picture quality.
Ronnie Screwvala – UTV Group
Ronnie and Zarina founded the UTV Group, now a country’s household name. This company was founded in 1990 to provide television content to broadcasters. Also, this company was the first independent producer in India, and the company started working by taking up advertisements and movies. Later on, the company started producing quiz shows. One of the company’s biggest hits was the Mashoor Mahal.
Within two decades, UTV expanded into broadcasting, gaming, film, and various other businesses. For the company, the biggest leap to success came during the time of incorporation. The team was engaged in the production of television content for Doordarshan. During this time, Subhash Chandra, who owned Zee TV, had just started to take small steps in the television circuit. Hence, they offered UTV a 550-episode contract. This was the golden opportunity for the team to shine on the big stage.
Ronnie Screwvala – Change of Events That Transformed UTV Into a Mega-Brand
The Success Story of Ronnie Screwvala’s UTV
The very first thing that changed the fortunes of the company was the introduction of flight entertainment by Air India. They hired UTV to provide flight entertainment for their customers. In 1993, the team started to accept programs from external customers and began marketing airtime on their programs. Apart from that, it launched a daily soap named Shanti. The team acquired a 54.60% stake in Lazer Production. Later on, in the same year, the company ventured into the movie distribution business.
In 1996, UTV and Disney got into a contract. This was about dubbing the content for Disney movies for Indian fans. Also, in the same year, UTV started offering services to international airlines for its in-flight entertainment division. The subsidiary of the company USLl acquired Ram Mohan Biographies. The brand was renamed to UTV Tools.
UTV also took a diverse turn in broadcasting by acquiring a controlling interest in Vijay Television Limited. This company operated as Vijay TV. With over 86% stake, UTV incorporated a group named UTV Net Solutions Ltd. IT was focused on Internet content creation via Indian regional language portals. In 200, the company started broadband content collection under the name sharkstram.com.
Hungama Channel, a household name in the country, is a product of UTV entertainment. This channel became the leading children’s television channel within a few years of its release. The company’s success can be measured by the fact that it got itself listed on the Bombay and National Stock Exchange.
With a deal of $10 Million with US-based BKN New Media, UTV opened up the door for itself as a mega brand. UTV toons expanded to 200 employees and purchased additional Autodesk’s 3D Max 8 software.
Ronnie Screwvala – Life as an Entrepreneur
Ronnie Screwvala – Life as an Entrepreneur
Unilazer Ventures
Screwvala is actively engaged as a venture capitalist/private equity investor through his brand and arm, Unilazer. His investment approach involves making early-stage investments in Indian new economy companies and startups, acquiring significant minority stakes, and leveraging his entrepreneurial experience to support founders. Unilazer’s diverse investment portfolio spans sectors such as e-commerce, leading online eyewear companies, AI and Bots, agriculture, and micro-housing finance.
RSVP Movies
RSVP Movies marks Screwvala’s comeback to the media and entertainment sector but with a renewed focus. At RSVP, the emphasis is on working with fresh storytellers to create bold, inventive narratives across films and digital media. Additionally, RSVP is adopting innovative distribution strategies to take its disruptive content to wider audiences globally across theaters and OTT platforms.
U Sports
Screwvala is a co-founder of U Sports, a venture with a strategic emphasis on three distinct sports. Notably, Kabaddi is a widely popular sport in India and across Asia, where his team, U Mumba, stands out as a top contender in the 12-team ProKabaddi League. U Sports also delves into the realms of E-Sports and Football. In the domain of football, the brand U Dreams is dedicated to nurturing and managing talent across various age groups for extended periods.
upGrad
Screwvala co-founded upGrad, a leading online education company in India specializing in higher education. With a strong focus on areas like Digital Marketing, Data Analytics, and Product Management, upGrad has become a major player. The company has valuable partnerships with colleges, including IIT Madras, IIIT-B, BITS Pilani, MICA, and Cambridge Judge Business School Executive Education.
The Swades Foundation
Screwvala, alongside his wife Zarina, dedicates a quarter of his time to the Swades Foundation, with a shared commitment to empower a million people out of poverty. Swades operates in a 3000 sq km area in Raigad, Maharashtra, focusing on Water, Sanitation, Health, and Education, and primarily on creating livelihood opportunities for half a million people in 2000 villages.
During the early days of UTV, Ronnie formed a society named SHARE (Now The Swades Foundation). This stood for Society to Heal, Aid, Restore, Educate. The objective was to develop rural Maharashtra. Presently, Ronnie has donated a whopping INR 2350 crores to the foundation. By establishing The Swades Foundation, he has taken a bold initiative to empower a million people and help them break free from the shackles of poverty. With his unwavering commitment to this shared cause, he is making a significant impact on the lives of those who need it the most.
Ronnie Screwvala – Shark Tank India
Ronnie Screwvala – Shark Tank India Season 3
Accomplished media entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala has joined the popular start-up reality show Shark Tank India as a new Shark for its upcoming third season. Known for founding UTV Group and currently heading content studio RSVP Movies, Screwvala brings over 30 years of experience across television, films, and digital platforms. His addition to the panel, comprised of Anupam Mittal, Aman Gupta, Namita Thapar, and others, will provide a more diverse perspective and industry expertise to evaluate budding ventures this season. With his sharp insights into B2C and B2B, everyone eagerly anticipates his funding choices and operational guidance this season.
With a clear vision to change the entertainment sector, Ronnie has worked for the betterment of the circuit. His company, UTV, has changed the way we watch and enjoy movies. Apart from the fact that he is a successful entrepreneur, his work for charity makes him an inspiration for many entrepreneurs!
FAQs
Who is the owner of UTV India?
While publicly traded for a time, UTV India is now ultimately owned by The Walt Disney Company, which acquired a controlling stake in 2012. Disney gained full ownership 2013 and integrated UTV’s operations into their Indian media network.
How much was UTV sold for?
UTV was sold to Walt Disney for ₹2,000 crore ($454 million).
Who is the owner of upGrad?
upGrad is co-founded by Ronnie Screwvala, Phalgun Kompalli, and Mayank Kumar.
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.
UpGrad is an educational technology company that was founded in the year 2015. The company has its headquarters located in Mumbai, India. The company was founded by Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, Phalgum Kompaili and Ravijot Chugh.
The target market of the company is the working professionals who are looking back to get into the learning process without quitting their job.
The company provides access to the working professionals with university education through online modes in a structured manner. Let’s look at the below article to analyze the different subsidiary companies of UpGrad.
The Gate Academy is one of the recently acquired company by UpGrad. With this acquisition, UpGrad had entered into the test preparation market. The acquisition amount was not disclosed by UpGrad.
Even after the acquisition, the company is been known from its original name as The Gate Academy itself. The Chief Executive Officer of the company is Ritesh Raushan. The Gate Academy has its headquarters located in Bengaluru, India.
The Gate Academy Website
The plans of UpGrad after acquiring the startup were to increase the accessibility of this startup to at least 1 million test takers annually. This was planned to be achieved by investing over INR 100 crore in the company and by developing the content of around 20,000 hours in different languages.
The Gate Academy is one of India’s leading coaching institutes. The company has around 57 centers across the country. There are around 2 lakh learners who are enrolled for GATE and other entrance exams. They have consumed around 76 million video hours.
The Gate Academy has provided UpGrad with a non-linear growth opportunity by entering into a new segment and providing a deeper penetration in the semi-urban and the rural markets.
Acadview
Acadview was founded in the year 2015 by an ex-Google employee Himanshu Batra. The company helps fresh graduates upskill themselves to find highly skilled jobs. They upskill the graduates through industry projects and online coaching.
Acadview also provides an opportunity to the young IT professionals to earn an extra income by teaching the courses to the students and providing mentorship. The company has its headquarters in New Delhi, India.
Acadview has partnered with more than 80 private universities and colleges across five states in north India. The company has claimed that it has onboarded around 3,000 students in the previous year.
The acquisition of UpGrad will help the subsidiary company to focus on the north Indian market and UpGrad will help in expanding its presence there. UpGrad will also help the company to bring up its model online by providing the required materials.
Fairmont Technologies Pvt. Ltd
Fairmont Technologies Pvt. Ltd was founded in the year 2015. The company has its headquarters in Bengaluru, Karnataka. UpGrad had acquired the startup CohortPlus which is operated under the company Fairmont Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Srinivasan Narayan is the founder and Co-founder of the company. CohortPlus will enable members to post various questions and they will get a chance to receive various perspectives from industry professionals. The members also have an option to seek assistance on Job interviews using the platform.
CohortPlus claims that it has a community of more than 31,000 members from a wide range of companies such as Google, Adobe, Facebook, Amazon, Practo, Zomato, Uber, etc. After the acquisition by UpGrad the company is concentrated on enlisting the support of the parent company to build a proprietary platform for people who are looking to advance in their careers.
Rekrut India Pvt. Ltd.
Rekrut India Pvt. Ltd was founded in the year 2020 and has its headquarters in Mumbai, India. Ajay Shah is the managing founder of Rekrut India Pvt. Ltd. Rekrut India has an extensive network of over 100 recruiting experts who handles the complexities of the hiring process.
Rekrut Website
The startup is said to be working closely with a lot of corporates, MSMEs and large enterprises. The acquisition helped the parent company that is UpGrad in turbocharging its career engine by providing a wider opportunity in placement and enabling the learners using the UpGrad platform to access the hiring partners of Rekrut India Pvt.Ltd.
This was the first time where an EdTech startup had acquired a recruitment company in India. The size of the deal was not disclosed.
FAQ
Who is the owner of upGrad?
Ronnie Screwvala is the Co Founder and Chairman of upGrad.
Who is the CEO of upGrad?
Arjun Mohan is Chief Executive Officer of upGrad.
Is upGrad profitable?
upGrad’s revenue stood at Rs 230 crore in FY20. The company has set a revenue target of Rs 300 crore for the January-March quarter.
Conclusion
All this acquisition has provided a strong platform for UpGrad in the EdTech space in India. These subsidiary companies are working closely with UpGrad to capture the Indian EdTech market.
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 the TrueFan.
The celebrity-fan engagement industry in India is on a very nascent stage and the existent Connection between Fans and Celebrities is just unbelievable! With TrueFan platform, the team aims to fulfill the dreams of millions of fans in India and provide them with the most meaningful celebrity engagement experiences with their favorite celebrities.
Nimish Goelm, Nevaid Aggarwal and Devender Bindalack founded TrueFan, when they realized the lack of personal accessibility by fans to their favorite celebrities. In an urge to bridge this gap, TrueFan was born!
StartupTalky interviewed Nimish Goelm (Co-founder & CEO, TrueFan) to know the Success Story of TrueFan and also get a glance on TrueFan’s business model, how it started, growth, founders, revenue model, funding & more…
TrueFan is a platform that aspires to connect fans to their favorite celebrities in the most personal and meaningful ways.
It caters to the everyday Indian audience who’ve grown up enacting dialogues from Bollywood movies, copied hairdos of their beloved ‘heroes’ & ‘heroines’ or turned into bathroom-singers with their favorite love songs. TrueFan allows these very ‘true fans’ to interact with their dream stars at a price that does not hit the pocket.
“What the platform aims is to celebrate the true spirit of Indian Fandom and provide fans access to A list celebrities like never before” Says TrueFan Team
There are around 300 million Indians, who head to the cinemas to watch movies, coupled with a large audience base for tv shows and sports, especially cricket. Taking this into consideration, the market size is as large as it can be. While the country preaches its utmost devotion towards stars, the access to them is either via social media/ through interviews/paparazzi shoots. The celebrity-fan engagement industry in India is on a very nascent stage. With social media, the interaction fans have with celebrities is usually a one-way street and passive where a fan is probably dropping hundreds of comments but all of these mostly go unnoticed.
While COVID- 19 has posed restrictions, the demand for celebrity fan engagement platforms has increased. Fans want access to their beloved stars and these platforms cater to that need. The coming years will see exponential growth for this industry which is currently very nascent in India. While many other platforms exist, influential celebrity connect platforms try to provide a meaningful and personalized experience to the users
Nevaid Aggarwal, Devender Bindal and Nimish Goelm (CEO) are the founders of TrueFan
TrueFan has a 40 member team in total and is growing across the two offices in India.
Nimish Goelm – founder & CEO, TrueFan
TrueFan – Startup Idea
India is a country that worships celebrities, the connection seems quite distant but in a way is very personal. The TrueFan founders realized that this issue of devotion towards the superstars and the lack of personal accessibility to them needed to be bridged. Here’s when TrueFan came into being.
With this platform, the team aims to fulfill the dreams of millions of fans in India and provide them with the most meaningful engagement experiences with their favorite celebrities.
“I have been a fanboy all my life. It was an almost surreal experience of gate-crashing a wedding to meet my idol, Virat Kohli that put me in the shoes of millions of Indian fans out there” Says Nimish Goelm(founder & CEO, TrueFan)
The TrueFan platform is simple and easy to use. All that the user has to do is
Answer a series of fun questions around the life of their favorite celebrity/s
The winner, or in this case, the ‘TrueFan’, stands a chance to win a personalized video message from his/her favorite star.
While all the other fans get assured cashbacks. Thus, the platform operates on an easy win-win module that has something for everyone.
TrueFan Application
TrueFan USP –
While there are many existing players in the market, TrueFan platform is completely different from them. It has focused on partnering with only leading celebrities (A listers exclusively). TrueFan’s business is based on gamification and fun. Where it encourages fans to play simple quizzes to win video messages versus making them a one-off transactional purchase.
“Our name is our philosophy. It’s simple and easy to understand. TrueFan. Pure, sharp appealing and yet quite broad” adds Nimish Goelm
TrueFan Logo
TrueFan – Business Model and Revenue Model
Users are asked to pay a nominal feeto play quizzes on TrueFan platform. The winner gets a personalized video from the said celebrity, other players receive cashbacks on the basis of their rank in the game.
“We wanted to price our product in a manner that it can be accessed by a larger mass of the country. The true aspirational value we want to create is for the personalized videos, cashback is just a way to ensure that there is something in the bucket for everyone” Says Nimish, Founder, TrueFan
Post-closing the first funding round in August 2020, the team launched the TrueFan platform in September 2020. TrueFan announced its exclusive partnership with the biggest names of Bollywood, Kareena Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff. While something like this was never seen before, it felt surreal to a lot of fans at first.
TrueFan team reached out to users to ensure smooth transaction and to make their experience with the celebrity more meaningful and personalized. This process helped it gain a lot of first hand feedback on the product and provided an eagle view from the consumer’s lens.
The fact that the product fulfilled deep desire of fans to get an interaction from their favorite celebrity, its amazing to find that some have played more than 100 paid quizzes. And “paid” is the most important word here. Since, TrueFan is a user- centric platform, it used social media and google ads to target the demographic extensively
TrueFan started during COVID. Although the pandemic did not pose many challenges, as it is a tech based product. But getting its name recognized in the market and building a unique identity for TrueFan was the challenging bit.
“Since our value proposition is like none of the existing players in the market, TrueFan is gradually building a user base of its own” adds Nimish
TrueFan – Milestones and Current Status
TrueFan is headquartered in New Delhi and operates at two locations, Mumbai and Delhi.
Two of the biggest milestones in TrueFan’s journey so far have been the funding received and partnerships with some of the biggest household names of Bollywood.
Founders did a lot of research while giving shape to the product and then pitched it to leading talent and their management teams. TrueFan team was happy to have received a great response from them and that has led to successful partnerships
TrueFan – Funding and Investors
TrueFan raised a seed round of $4.3 million in August 2020. This funding round was led by Ronnie Screwvala, Mayfield India and Saama Capital
Date
Amount
Stage
Investors
August 2020
$4.3 Million
Seed
Ronnie Screwvala, Mayfield India and Saama Capital
The celebrity- fan engagement space in India is still growing, there are quite a few players existing in the market, Gonuts, Unlu, Tring and Wysh. Cameo, which is platform of the similar kind is considered as the largest player internationally
TrueFan – Future Plans
TrueFan’s short term goals lie in expanding its user base and celebrity portfolio. It wants to partner with A- listers from all walks of life (Music, Sports and more). While for the long run, TrueFan aims to build a 360 degree celebrity-fan engagement platform with a lot more features that enable fans to form communities and consume quality content that will be curated by platform.
TrueFan – FAQs
What is TrueFan?
TrueFan is a platform that aspires to connect fans to their favourite celebrities in the most personal and meaningful ways.
Who are the founders of TrueFan?
TrueFan was co-founded by Nevaid Aggarwal, Devender Bindal and Nimish Goelm in January 2020.
How much funding has TrueFan raised?
TrueFan raised a seed round of $4.3 million in August 2020. This funding round was led by Ronnie Screwvala, Mayfield India and Saama Capital
How does TrueFan make money?
Users are asked to pay a nominal fee to play quizzes on TrueFan platform. The winner gets a personalized video from the said celebrity, other players receive cashbacks on the basis of their rank in the game.
Who are Truefan’s competitors?
Gonuts, Unlu, Tring, Wysh and Cameo are the major competitors of TrueFan.
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Rishabh Rathi
