UpGrad edu firm to invest ₹150 cr in the online higher education

Education startup, upGrad, intends to invest ₹150 crores into its online higher education business following its two new partnerships with Jamia Hamdard University (JMU) and OP Jindal Global University to strive for new courses.

upGrad’s partnership with JMU also indicates its entry into the Bachelor’s degree segment. The edtech firm will now allow BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration) and BCA (Bachelor of Computer Application) degrees to outgoing high-school graduates.

The edtech startup also began two new master’s programs in partnership with OP Jindal Global University. This constitutes a one-year LLM in corporate and financial law and a two-year MBA degree in digital finance and banking.

Founded in early 2015, upGrad allows online programs for working professionals and has on-boarded over 21,500 paid learners on its platform.

The startup has been rising up investments into its higher education business as more students embrace digital platforms to up-skill. Last month the startup earmarked ₹50 crores to make fresh gains in the segments of online degrees, post-graduation, and higher education space at large.

upGrad, at present, is mainly concentrated on online up-skilling programs around technology, data science, and management. It also intends to add a new line of online programs around finance, law, and medicine, through further acquisitions.

In July last year, upGrad took Bengaluru-based CohortPlus, a community-based platform that was directed at Product Management and Data Science for an undisclosed amount.

Before that, in 2018, the edtech enterprise acquired skilling platform Acadview Software Pvt. Ltd for an undisclosed sum, and acquire-hired mobile-based SaaS (Software-as-a-service) product Pyoopil Education Technologies Pvt Ltd. in 2016.

“The ongoing global crisis calls for evolution regularly, particularly amid the online education space, which seems to be the only way ahead, owing to its robustness and accessibility. Our degree portfolio will enable learners to continue with their academia, without having to think about the overall crisis that has taken a sharp toll on the offline education system,” said Ronnie Screwvala, executive chairman, and Co-Founder, upGrad.

The startup will also grant paid programs and free certification courses to enduring college students. For offline colleges and universities, upGrad is also giving access to its upGrad LIVE platform that allows an online learning management system (LMS), so they can seamlessly move to online at zero cost. More than 50 institutes have already enrolled in the program.