upGrad acquires hiring firm Rekrut India

upGrad said in a statement that the acquisition of Rekrut will open up wider placement opportunities and propel accessibility of its learners to Rekrut’s hiring partners.

“Rekrut will now open the floodgate of career opportunities for upGrad learners. Hence, we are thrilled to announce the onboarding of the team, a significant step in making upGrad a career powerhouse for professionals," said upGrad Co-founders Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, and Phalgun Kompalli in a joint statement. 

Moneycontrol had reported how upGrad will be using the M&A route to get deeper penetration in the life-long learning and human capital space.

Post the acquisition, Rekrut India, a 100 percent subsidiary of upGrad, will continue to operate independently, with Ajay Shah continuing as the managing director.

upGrad said, given the massive potential of the recruitment sector, which in itself is a Rs 15,000 crore market, there is an independent business in this sector will provide strong non-linear growth opportunities for the company.

"The upGrad-Rekrut synergy will disrupt the ecosystem and build an end-to-end supply chain of manpower, where Rekrut is the demand partner providing cutting-edge jobs and upGrad will supply the highly skilled, and future-ready talent. We will be taking the learners’ pipeline to the relevant industry stakeholders thereby helping them find the right talent with speed, while in parallel offering a wider choice of career transition for upGrad learners,” said Ajay Shah, Managing Director, Rekrut.

Prior to the Rekrut acquisition, upGrad’s in-house career services team was reaching out to around 100-200 hiring partners in a year. The company said in a statement that upGrad drove over 1,000 career transitions in 2020, with an average salary hike of 44 percent.