upGrad records an annual revenue run rate of $165 million

upGrad announced at the Company Town Hall, that it has crossed the milestone of 14 Million USD a month and achieved an Annual Revenue Run rate (ARR) of 165 Million USD. The edtech major now targets 25% revenue growth in the next quarter (April-May-June) with profitability in sight.

Ronnie Screwvala; co-founder & chairman at upGrad, said, “It’s been a tough Covid year. I know many have said 2020 was a break-out year for edtech, but on the contrary, I can clearly see Higher Education hitting its massive inflection point once the pandemic settles down.  Most of us are wondering what will ‘change’ post the pandemic, but at upGrad we are building on what will not change for the next many decades – the future of Online and LifeLongLearning. And, that allows us to build a global company, at scale.”

Screwvala is one of Asia’s most successful entrepreneurs, having ranked amongst the 100 most influential people in the world by Time 100 and amongst 25 Asia’s Most Powerful people by Fortune Magazine. He founded media conglomerate UTV which was listed in India, and on the AIM/London Stock Exchange, before divesting it to Walt Disney at an enterprise value of 1.4 billion USD in 2013. Screwvala, along with his co-founders in his second innings is committing to building upGrad as a global leader in online education.

2020 was the year where upGrad grew by 100% in revenues, tripled its course offerings, hit the ball out of the park on global MBAs, scaled university partnerships, put together a crack global team, crossed 1 Million learners across 50+ countries, delivered 10 Million hours of Learning experiences, and closed 3 acquisitions.

“For us to get to our 2 Billion USD Revenue goal by 2026, we are well placed in all our building blocks. In 2021 & 2022, we will be linking all the dots in LifeLongLearning – from anyone entering college, to all the way to retirement, and everything in between. The consolidation of our international expansion and strategic acquisitions will further fuel non-linear revenue growth in 2021. upGrad’s differentiator of deep learning, record 85% course completion ratio, along with meeting career goals of learners, will keep us a market leader and a partner of choice for our learners, academia alliances around the world,” highlighted Screwvala.

upGrad has strengthened its leadership team with the hiring of former-Grab leader Saranjit Sangar as CEO – EMEA. As the first appointed international CEO of upGrad, Saranjit is focused on leveraging EdTech to support future-focused career skills growth in the GCC region. “The digital transformation strategy set by the regional leadership is inspiring and ambitious, and a necessary step towards a better tomorrow. In order to turn this vision into reality, upGrad will play its part by upskilling professionals on topics such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Cloud computing, Data Science and more.”

upGrad offers over 100 online courses in collaboration with top-notch global universities like Deakin Business School (Australia), Duke CE (US), Liverpool Business School (UK), IIT Madras (India), and others.