Acquisition Of Higher Education Startup Talentedge completed by Ronnie Screwvala-Led upGrad
- ByStartupStory | April 8, 2022
The acquisition of higher education startup Talentedge has been completed by Edtech unicorn upGrad.
In December 2021, the deal was first announced and integrating Talentedge within its group of companies has now been finished by upGrad. Talentedge was valued at about INR 205 Cr ($27 Mn) and at an upGrad value of $2 Bn, the near 100% share swap transaction was done.
The deal value has not been disclosed by upGrad. upGrad said surprisingly, in its press statement, that the deal is valued at 3-4X of Talentedge’s this year’s revenue. This year, Talentedge is expected to report revenue of over INR 130 Cr and in the coming year it aims to double its revenue, claimed the startup in the press statement.
Talentedge under the deal will come under the upGrad umbrella and it will continue to operate with its own name. The Sekhsaria family, 100% owners of Talentedge, as part of the deal has received a stake in upGrad.
More than 60 courses in partnership with more than 20 universities has been offered by the Gurugram-based Talentedge. It has partnered with several leading Indian and international institutes including eCornell, IIMs, XLRI, MICA, and UCLA extension among others, and has over 5,00,000 individual and corporate learners.
Talentedge, founded by Malik in 2012, for an undisclosed amount had acquired a significant stake in Hyderabad-based GreyCampus in 2019.
In the edtech segment, the deal has become one of the largest consolidations. Last year’s BYJU’s acquisition of Aakash Educational, the 33-year-old chain of physical coaching centres, for an eye-watering $1 Bn still remains the largest deal ever in India’s edtech space.
upGrad, founded in 2015 by Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, Phalgun Kompalli and Ravijot Chugh, offers higher education courses in collaboration with various universities. To have a million users globally, has been claimed by it, of which 45,000 are paid students.
To enter the unicorn club in India, it became the third edtech startup after BYJU’s and Unacademy. To cross the billion-dollar valuation mark, the startup had raised $185 Mn from Temasek, International Finance Corporation.
However, in FY21 upGrad has seen its loss widen by almost 2.6X. After tax of INR 211 Cr in FY21,the startup posted a consolidated loss, it witnessed a 167.8% rise from the INR 78.8 Cr in FY20.
However, in the financial year ending on March 31, 2021, i.e., FY21, it has seen its revenue from operations grow almost by 2X. A consolidated revenue has been posted by upGrad worth INR 302 Cr from its operations, it recorded a 86% rise from the INR 162.3 Cr in FY20.
Revenue from the sale of products, and total revenue from operations other than finance is included in the total revenue from operations. Under its ‘other income’ segment in FY21, the Temasek-backed edtech startup posted INR 60 Lakh, thus taking the total revenue in FY21 of upGrad to INR 302.6 Cr, a significant rise it clocked in FY20 from INR 162.5 Cr.
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