upGrad to acquire ed-tech business Talentedge

By Nikhil Patwardhan

  • 06 Dec 2021

Ronnie Screwvala-led upGrad Education, which turned unicorn in August this year, has entered into an agreement to acquire online higher education business Talentedge Education Ventures Pvt Ltd. 

The deal size is around Rs 390 crore to Rs 520 crore, which is 3-4x of the year’s revenue.  

Talentedge is set to hit a revenue of over Rs 130 crore in FY22, the company said. 

"Coming together with upGrad enables us to access their best-in-class products and solutions, technology, and their data-driven pedagogical approach,” said Aditya Malik, chief executive officer and managing director, Talentedge. 

“Talentedge will continue to work with its university and institute partners to deliver the quality education to its learners across degree and certification programs," Malik added. 

Gurgaon-based Talentedge offers more than 60 courses in partnership with over 20 universities, it said.   

"upGrad has cemented its leadership position as the most integrated player in higher education in Asia, serving learners and working professionals across the age group of 18-50 years. Talentedge has meticulously built a strong business over the last decade and stayed the course in this space where most did not survive and we are very pleased to welcome them at upGrad as we build one of the largest edtech companies in the world," said Ronnie Screwvala, chairperson and co-founder, upGrad. 

This is upGrad’s ninth acquisition so far and there is likely to be more.  

Gaurav Kumar, president - corporate development and M&A, upGrad said that the firm is in talks to close a few more deals. “We are in the active stage of closing a few more large acquisitions in India as well internationally which will be announced in the next one to two quarters,” he said.