Ronnie Screwvala-led upGrad Achieves Unicorn Status

Yet another Indian education tech startup has achieved a unicorn status. This time it is the Ronnie Screwvala-led upGrad, which offers higher education and upskilling courses in data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, blockchain, finance, programming and law in collaboration with universities such as Michigan State University, the IIT Madras and IIT Delhi, and Swiss School of Business Management, Geneva.

The six-year old startup has achieved the unicorn status after raising $185 million in its latest funding round, which was led by Singapore’s Temasek. Among the participants in the round were World Bank’s International Finance Corporation and IIFL.

“We are pleased with the investor interest ever since we opened up for fundraise and had our maiden raise from Temasek, followed by IFC and IIFL in the last 60 days,” said Ronnie Screwvala, co-founder and chairperson of upGrad, in a statement.

Prior to the latest funding round, upGrad was valued at $600 million. Now, its valuations stands at $1.2 billion. Screwvala has said that upGrad will use the funding to explore merger and acquisition opportunities.

There have been many edtech startups based out of India that have seen fantastic growth in the recent quarters, including the famed Byju’s and Unacademy. Now, upGrad with its latest round joins the ranks of such soaring edtech companies from India.