‘Acquisitions focused towards short courses’
BENGALURU: Online higher education platform upgrad, has been doubling down its focus on expansion and is looking at acquisitions to enter newer verticals and bolster its presence in international geographies.
The company recently raised $120 million from Singaporebased Temasek Holdings in its first institutional funding and is in the process to raise another $40 million from the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The edtech company, which has made close to six acquisitions till date, is looking to hire over 1000 new employees over the next three months, to fuel its growth.
In an interview, company co-founder and chief executive officer, Ronnie Screwvala talks about the company’s acquisition strategy as the edtech company looks to get into shortform courses and bolster its presence across Australia, US and Indonesia. The company also expects almost 40% of its revenues to come from international markets in the next two years. Edited excerpts:
What is your acquisition strategy at present?
A majority of the courses at upgrad range between six to 24 months. We want to start introducing short-form refresher courses ranging from 10 to 100 days and may look at an acquisition to build it out. Secondly, our acquisitions are also aligned towards our international expansion plans, and we will look to acquire and boost our presence in the US, Australia and Indonesia. For international geographies like the US, we will look at a build and buy strategy since there’s much happening in the Edtech sector, at present. It’s safe to say that we will be building ground up on our own, in these markets, while also looking at acquisitions. Similar to India, we will continue our focus on higher learning in these markets.
How are you looking at your international expansion plans?
By geography, upgrad is currently focussed on Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, in Southeast Asia, the UK, Middle East,
Australia and North Africa. Of course, the US, as well.
By July this year, we will launch our courses across these geographies, and are currently building on ground teams, hiring country leads and region heads. Our entire international strategy is based on the approach of localisation, as we build localised teams and strengths in different geographies. For products, we will be focusing on working professionals in these international geographies and offer our entire gamut of services including certification, diploma and degree courses. We will also look to offer doctorate and PHD programs.
For the current fiscal, what are some of the interesting segments upgrad is actively focussed on?
For the US market, bootcamps are going to be an interesting and large opportunity to go after.
upgrad is also focussing on the study abroad segment, where we are taking a cost-effective hybrid approach for international courses. For the first one and a half years, individuals can learn and take classes online from universities abroad, and for the remaining attend campus, which results in considerable reduction of costs.
How much can international geographies contribute to your overall revenues?
We estimate that international geographies should contribute to almost 40% of our overall revenues in the next two years. Having said that, we continue to build for these international geographies from India and keep our costs in check.
What are the revenue targets upgrad is looking to achieve?
In March 2021, we hit a monthly revenue run rate of Rs 100 crores and an annual revenue run rate of Rs 1200 crores.
Considering the acquisitions (which we have undertaken) and expansion to new geographies, we expect to touch a monthly revenue run rate of Rs 250 crore - Rs 300 crore by March next year and aim to reach half a billion in overall revenues by Fy’22-end.