Edtech startup UpGrad Acquires Acadview, Increases Focus On Upskilling Working Professionals

Mumbai-based edtech startup UpGrad announced today the acquisition of Gurugram-headquartered job skilling platform Acadview for an undisclosed amount.

With this acquisition, the online higher education company is venturing into bridging the employability gap for a market which has enrolments of more than 35  Mn students in colleges, institutions, across over 50,000 higher education institutes and more than 800 universities.

Post acquisition, Acadview will join the UpGrad team and continue working on building, job skilling products for graduate students across colleges in India.

Founded in 2015 by Himanshu Batra, Acadview helps fresh graduates to enhance their employability by upskilling them with in-demand technologies through online live courses and industry projects.

Acadview has seasoned entrepreneurs and technology gurus as mentors from the bay area and has the distinction of partnerships with most private universities and colleges across North India and claims to have trained more than 3000 students last year.

Ronnie Screwvala and Mayank Kumar, Co-founders, UpGrad said, “College students in India are looking forward to picking up new age skills to make themselves more employable. UpGrad’s highly engaging online learning solution along with Acadview’s solid presence within the college space in India will allow us to deploy learning solutions for college students at a massive scale.”

Founded in early 2015 by Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, Phalgun Kompalli and Ravijot Chugh, UpGrad aims to help working professionals and individuals by providing them with university education online through structured programmes and facilities which include courses on deep technology, digital marketing, Management, Entrepreneurship certification among others.

The focus of the company is on working professionals looking to get back to learning in order to further progress in their careers with industry-ready programs, without the need of quitting their jobs.

“Education market in India is theory-based, making it challenging for students to be prepared for jobs. Equipping students with engaging content, personalised coaching, hands-on experience with real-world projects  …can bring a step change in the quality of workforce available to employers,” said Himanshu Batra, founder, and CEO of Acadview.

Acadview had raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Angel investors from India and Silicon Valley.

UpGrad had earlier acqui-hired Delhi-based SaaS platform Pyoopil Education Technologies, which joined UpGrad’s team and continued to develop technology on its platform to allow UpGrad to cater to the B2B segment and enhance its B2C offerings as well.

Edtech In India

Of late, edtech startups have received significant interest from investors, which is not a surprise. According to a May 2017 Google-KMPG report, the Indian online education sector may witness up to 8X growth in the next five years.

According to a December 2017 report entitled ‘Growth Opportunities in the Education Technology Market – Forecast to 2022’, the global edtech market crossed $17.7 Bn in revenue in 2017 and is predicted to grow to $40.9 Bn by 2022, at a CAGR of 18.3%.

Here’s a quick look at the major players in the edtech segment in India:

• BYJU’S gained the status of a unicorn when a funding infusion — including one by China’s Tencent and BCCL — valued the startup at $1 Bn
• Gaja Capital invested $25 Mn in Ahmedabad-headquartered edtech company Educational Initiatives and acquired a significant minority stake in sports education and training company KOOH Sports for $10.17 Mn
• California-and Bengaluru-based e-learning platform Quizizz raised $3 Mn in a funding round led by Nexus Venture Partners
• Bengaluru-based AI-focussed edtech startup Verzeo secured Series A funding of $5 Mn

With an eye on this potential market, edtech startups are making their presence felt in the $100 Bn Indian education sector, according to the IBEF.