Online higher education platform upGrad has acquired Impartus, a video-learning solutions provider, for ₹150 crore, in a cash and stocks deal as it looks to distribute its courses to colleges and other educational institutions.
The acquisition will give an exit to Impartus’s existing investor Kaizen, which had invested $4.1 million in the startup in 2015.
Almost ₹50 crore of the proceeds from the deal will be used as a further investment to scale the Impartus platform this fiscal year.
Post the acquisition, Impartus will be rebranded as upGrad Campus, which will focus on providing learning tools to higher education institutions and colleges.
Impartus co-founder Amit Mahensaria will take over as chief executive of upGrad Campus, and the subsidiary will continue to operate independently.
Bengaluru-based Impartus currently provides a video-learning platform, helping colleges and other educational institutions shift to virtual classes. It also allows students to record class lectures and review supplementary course material at any time.
Through the acquisition, upGrad, which predominantly focuses on working professionals, now plans to tap a younger user base and distribute its upskilling courses on Impartus’s video-learning platform.
The acquisition will also provide upGrad access to 600,000 students and 280 higher educational institutions in the country. The company now plans to add at least 50,000 new students for its courses this fiscal year through the acquisition. upGrad Campus looks to clock ₹85 crore in revenue by fiscal-end 2022.
“We want to cater to every individual’s learning above the kindergarten to grade 12 segment. Impartus is a technology enabler for colleges and we will be augmenting and integrating the platform with upGrad’s short courses (1- 4 months) for the same base. Further, cementing a learning relationship with college students early means that they may continue using upGrad, in the future, to take test prep for government jobs or for upskilling courses in their professional career,” said Ronnie Screwvala, chairman and co-founder, upGrad.
Screwvala added that the edtech continues to scout for acquisitions to bring in short-format courses averaging around three months to bolster its presence in the US, Australia and Indonesia.
Excluding Impartus, upGrad, has made close to five acquisitions and acqui-hires till date including online training software platform, Pyoopil; online job skilling platform, Acadview; and product community platform, CohortPlus.
In 2020, upGrad acquired The Gate Academy to foray into the competitive test preparation segment, and staffing solutions platform, Rekrut India.
“One of the major challenges faced by graduates in India, is their lack of industry-ready and employable skill sets due to the inadequate curriculum of higher education institutions. The synergy of Impartus and upGrad will pave the way for augmenting college education by helping learners upskill with new-age courses, thus elevating their candidature for better career prospects,” said Amit Mahensaria, CEO, upGrad Campus.
upGrad Campus looks to clock Rs85 crore in revenues by end of fiscal 2022.
At present, upGrad offers more than 100 courses in collaboration with Indian and global universities The edtech platform has over 1 million total registered users across 50 countries globally, and recently achieved an annual revenue run rate (ARR) of $165 million, the company said.
In April, upGrad raised $120 million as a part of its first external investment from Singapore-based Temasek Holdings, and is in the process to raise another $40 million from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a sister organisation of the World Bank.
The funding round is expected to bring down the promoter’s holding to 75% in the company, with upGrad likely to be valued at $850 million, post the fund infusion.
