upGrad, a platform for higher education, announced on Friday that it had acquired Harappa Education, an online education provider, for Rs 300 crores (about $38 million).
Present Harappa shareholders Bodhi Tree Systems, a newly formed platform between James Murdoch and Uday Shankar, and Co-Founders Pramath Raj Sinha and Shreyasi Singh closed the deal with upGrad.
Harappa Education is expected to make a revenue of Rs 75 crores this year.
“A combination of upskilling courses along with these critical skills that Harappa has to offer would set us apart. We see strong demand from our clients and with Harappa coming in, we believe we’ll be able to grow exponentially within the segment as we cross-leverage the synergies,” said Ronnie Screwvala and Mayank Kumar, Co-founders of upGrad.
Co-founded by Sinha, also the Founding Dean of the Indian School of Business (ISB), Harappa Education offers self-paced courses to address the spiralling problem of poor employability, inadequate leadership, and an ill-equipped workforce.
Harappa has an active clientele of 100 mid and large-sized organisations.
“As a combined force, Harappa and upGrad will anchor our purpose and conviction to create a truly wholesome learning ecosystem for lifelong learners in India and abroad, with our time-tested pedagogy, flagship programs, and rich partnerships to guarantee unmatched outcomes for our learners and clients,” said Sinha and Singh, Founders of Harappa.
In addition to having more than 300 university partners and a learner base of more than 3 million spread across more than 100 countries, upGrad also operates an enterprise business with a client base of 1000 companies globally.
Earlier this month, upGrad Rekrut, a wholly owned subsidiary of the leading provider of online higher education, revealed it had bought Wolves India for an undisclosed sum.
