Upgrad completes acquisition of Harappa Education; eyes 65 pc revenue growth in FY23

Mumbai, Jul 22 (PTI) Online upskilling platform Upgrad on Friday said it has completed the Rs 300-crore acquisition of Harappa Education and is expecting over 65 per cent growth in revenue this fiscal at Rs 4,000 crore.

The city-based online edutech firm, founded in 2015, had doubled its revenue to a little over Rs 2,400 crore in FY22 from around Rs 1,200 crore in the previous year, when the company witnessed a sharp jump in its revenue from Rs 230 crore as Covid pandemic pushed the demand for its services.

"We have set a target of clocking Rs 4,000 crore revenue this fiscal. Also, we expect to add 10 lakh more students this year taking our total live customer base to 40 lakh," Mayank Kumar, co-founder and managing director of Upgrad, told PTI.

On the buyout of New Delhi-based Harappa Education, cofounded by Pramath Raj Sinha (founding dean of the Indian School of Business), Kumar said Upgrad is more focused on B2C and lacks presence in the B2B space. This deal fills that major gap.

This deal with the two-year-old Harappa, owned by Bodhi Tree Systems -- a platform between James Murdoch and Uday Shankar-- and co-founders Sinha and Shreyasi Singh (ex-editor of India Inc), is a "better fit for us to enter the B2B space", Kumar said.

"We see strong demand from our clients and with Harappa coming in, we believe we'll be able to grow fast within the segment as we cross-leverage the synergies," said Ronnie Screwvala, the founding chairman and major shareholder of Upgrad.

Sinha, who was also the founder trustee of the Ashoka University, said Harappa Education had clocked Rs 75 crore revenue, up from Rs 25 crore a year before, but expects to net Rs 250 crore this year as there is an increasing demand from corporates to re-skill and upskill their workforce.

The corporate sector is really ready to spend on reskilling their workforce, he added.

Kumar said post-merger, the entire 180-member Harappa team along with the founders will join the Upgrad team.

Harappa offers self-paced courses to address the spiralling problem of poor employability, inadequate leadership and an ill-equipped workforce and serves a clientele of 100 mid- and large-sized organisations.

Since the pandemic-induced push, Upgrad, owned 25 per cent by Singaporean giant Temasek Holdings (UD 120 million investment) and the World Bank Group arm IFC (USD 40 million) in April 2021 at a valuation of USD 850 million, has become the largest integrated higher education platform in the online space with over 40 lakh live students.

Harappa is Upgrad's ninth acquisition since December 2020.

In July 2021 Screwala had told PTI that he had earmarked USD 250 million for inorganic growth.

Upgrad's first deal was in December 2020 when it took over recruitment and staffing solutions firm Rekrut India. This was followed by video-enabled learning solutions provider Impartus in May 2021 and KnowledgeHut in August 2021.

In November 2021, it bought Australia's largest study abroad firm Global Study Partners, followed by online higher education company Talentedge in December 2021.

In January 2022, it took over the enterprise learning and development offerings firm Work Better, and in May this year it bought International School of Engineering (Insofe) which is into data science, and earlier this month, Wolves India which specialises in placing quality talent across startups along with mid and large-sized organisations. PTI BEN HVA