Edtech unicorn upGrad acquires corporate training startup Centum Learning

Edtech unicorn upGrad on September 15 acquired corporate training solutions company Centum Learning in a share-swap deal.

In a statement, the edtech startup said that with this transaction, Bharti Enterprises Limited and its affiliates will join upGrad’s cap table. It also said that Centum will continue to operate independently under Sanjay Bahl, managing director, and chief executive officer of Centum Learning.

Centum is an addition under upGrad’s umbrella of companies at a time when the edtech unicorn seems to be on an acquisition spree.

On August 2, upGrad acquired Exampur, a test preparation platform for government jobs, in what was its third acquisition in a month. A few days earlier, it picked up online learning platform Harappa Education and recruitment and staffing firm Wolves India.

The latest of upGrad’s acquisitions - New Delhi-based Centum - was founded in 2007 and offers impact-based training to corporates as well as vocational, and educational training to schools and college learners.

“Enterprise workforce upskilling is a supercritical need. The sector remains highly fragmented. upGrad has always seen enterprise upskilling as a strategic growth driver and we are making some nonlinear movements to reinvent B2B learning in India and create an integrated ‘Life Long Learning’ ecosystem for our stakeholders,” said Mayank Kumar, co-founder and managing director (MD), and Gaurav Kumar – president, Corporate Development of upGrad.

The company said that Centum has a team of over 3,000 learning and development (L&D) specialists and also claimed it has trained more than two million people across India and Africa.  This also comes at the back of Kumar’s remarks on the company’s efforts on doubling down growth in its international operations, in a recent episode of CNN-News18’s Bits to Billions.

upGrad added Centum is expected to clock a revenue of Rs 170 crores ($21 million) in FY23.

“...We have put in years of hard work building a bespoke training and content portfolio that makes new-age learning more immersive and outcome-oriented for both corporates and individuals. Both upGrad and Centum are committed to driving outcomes for their learners. Therefore, I am excited about combining the two synergies for creating a scalable portfolio for continued results,” said Centum’s Bahl.

In a recent interview with Moneycontrol, Kumar said the company’s strategy behind the acquisition spree is creating a lifelong learning journey for their users, which starts from post-K through 12 (post-kindergarten to 12th grade) to the 55-60 age group.

upGrad's series of acquisitions come at a time when other consumer-facing ed techs such as Unacademy and Vedantu are cutting costs and turning conservative, amidst a larger slowdown in startup funding.

In addition, Edtech decacorn Byju's, on September 14, said its revenue fell three percent year on year to Rs 2,428 crore on a consolidated basis and it reported a Rs 4,589 crore loss in FY21, nearly 20 times the adjusted loss of Rs 231.69 crore loss in FY20 (2019-20).