upGrad Invests INR 30 Cr In Its AI-as-a-Service Platform TuringMinds

Edtech major upGrad has invested INR 30 Cr in TuringMinds, its artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) outsourcing and upskilling platform. upGrad has injected the funding for TuringMinds to double its headcount and expand globally.

The investment in TuringMinds comes after upGrad invested $40 Mn (INR 331.14 Cr) in Harappa Education, a startup it acquired in July this year.

The edtech unicorn set up TuringMinds last year to provide services such as AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS) and HR solutions for companies, along with corporate training and upskilling in AI and ML. TuringMinds allows startups, SMEs and MNCs to develop AI-based products and services via its incubators and accelerators.

The team will incubate more than 50 prototypes each year, including products and accelerators, filing 8-10 portals in the next 8 months, upGrad said in a statement.

“TuringMinds specialises in taking an idea, quickly building prototypes and accelerators (Apps), testing them with the industry, and picking the cherries among them,” Prof Anuradha Sharma, president of TuringMinds, said.

She added that the brand is receiving a positive response from SMEs and MNCs across the world, which are looking to develop products and services in AI and ML.

TuringMinds currently operates with more than 15 offline facilities in the US, India, Europe, the UK and the Middle East. The startup already has 250 product engineers.

Dr Dakshinamurthy V Kolluru, CEO of uGDX and TuringMinds said, “We have always worked with a very strong industry-centric DNA, and we further saw this as an opportunity to leverage the expertise of our talent through TuringMinds.”

Speaking on the development, Ronnie Screwvala, cofounder and chairperson of upGrad, said, “In addition to our LifeLongLearning suite, we are hiring bachelor’s to doctorate holders in large numbers to fuel our mission of developing full-fledged marketable products.”

Earlier this year, upGrad reported an almost 3X surge in its FY22 loss to INR 626.6 Cr from INR 211.1 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Its operating revenue also doubled to reach INR 679.2 Cr from INR 327.1 Cr in FY21.

At the same time, the edtech major’s expenses increased 2.5X to INR 1,300.6 Cr in FY22 from INR 513.7 Cr in FY21.

The funding comes at a time when the edtech sector in the country has been hit hardest by the ongoing funding winter. Consequently, edtech startups like Crejo.Fun, Udayy, Lido, SuperLearn, and Qin1 have shut operations in 2022 so far.

Besides, the edtech sector has also seen the highest number of layoffs this year. Per Inc42’s layoff tracker, edtech startups have laid off over 7,868 employees in 2022 so far.