Mumbai-based edtech startup UpGrad has acquired the Gurugram-based Acadview Software, job skilling platform for college students, for an undisclosed amount.
With the acquisition, UpGrad, an upskilling platform targetting working professionals, will foray into offering online courses for undergraduate students. This will mark UpGrad’s entry into the higher education market, with 35 million students across more than 50,000 higher education institutes and, over 800 universities.
Post acquisition, Acadview will join the UpGrad team and will continue to work on its products with a focus on the north India market, as UpGrad expands its presence in those regions.
Acadview was founded by Himanshu Batra and Varun Jain in 2015. The startup enables fresh graduates to find suitable jobs by upskilling them with in-demand technologies through online courses and industry projects.
It further helps young professionals make extra income by teaching these courses and mentoring students.
With a partnership with more than 80 universities and colleges across north India, Acadview has trained over 3,000 students in the last year alone.
Talking about the acquisition, 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.”
UpGrad was founded in March 2015 by Phalgun Kompalli, Ronnie Screwvala, Ravijot Chugh and Mayank Kumar. It provides online higher education programs to empower individuals to reach their full professional potential.
With partnerships with institutes like IIIT Bangalore, BITS Pilani, IMT Ghaziabad, UK’s Cambridge University, UpGrad offers courses across domains like data sciences, marketing & management, product management, entrepreneurship, and technology.
In October 2016, UpGrad acqui-hired Pyoopil Education Technologies, marking its first acquisition.
According to an IBEF report, the education industry in India is set to offer tremendous opportunities for growth as it is expected to reach $101 billion by 2019.
India is already the second largest e-learning market in the world, behind only the US, and it continues to grow as more students leverage the internet, and edtech startups enter the sector to strengthen India’s e-learning ecosystem.
Other players in the edtech domain competing with UpGrad include Simplilearn, Talentedge, Edukart, Byju’s, and Unacademy, among many others.
Earlier this month, edtech startup Eupheus Learning raised funds from Sixth Sense Ventures, another edtech startup GuruQ raised ₹2.5 crore in pre-series A funding.
Check out the list to top edtech startup in India across various domains.