Ronnie Screwvala's promoted edtech firm UpGrad raises fresh funds

Online education company UpGrad promoted by entrepreneur and philanthropist Ronnie Screwvala has raised Rs 1.5 crore and roped in another investor Unilazer to its board.

The Mumbai-based edtech firm is already in talks to raise about $40 million in lieu of significant stakes from overseas investors.

According to a report published in paper.vc the latest proceeds raised by the firm is done via allotment of 15,00,000 redeemable preference shares on January 29, 2018. Meanwhile, the company has not answered the queries sent by Entrackr till the publication of the report.

UpGrad which is slated to offer a digital marketing course in collaboration with Cambridge Judge School of Business in this year has also earmarked Rs 200 crore for international expansion into South-East Asia and Middle East markets.

The company will first expand into Singapore and Dubai.

Also Read: Ronnie Screwvala’s UpGrad seeks opportunity to expand in global market

UpGrad is already on an expansion and hiring spree and invested around Rs 100 crore in the last two and half years in India only.

In 2015, Screwvala and Mayank Kumar, along with Phalgun Kompalli and Ravijot Chugh launched UpGrad, an online higher education platform which provides a range of programs consists of digital marketing, product management, entrepreneurship, data analytics, data-driven management and digital technology management.

The platform has tied up with universities (IIIT Bangalore, MICA Ahmedabad, and BITS Pilani) and government (Startup India) as well as corporates to help students get the right career transitions.

Globally the firm competes with players like edX, Coursera, and Udacity who are also looking to capture global markets though unpaid MOOCs (massive online open courses) and other paid courses.

In India, UpGrad finds Simplilearn, Edureka, igsaw Academy, among others as its close competitor. Beyond growing the B2C business in India, the platform is also looking towards expanding its presence in the B2B space and extend to the International market.

Screwvala himself leads Unilazer Ventures, a Mumbai-based private equity and venture capital firm specialised in early- and late-stage investments. The VC firm has so far invested in startups such as Dogspot, Zivame, Lenskart, ShopClues, niki.ai among others.