Indian edtech company upGrad has raised INR 300 crore ($40 million) in a rights issue, with Temasek investing INR 81 crore and upGrad’s co-founder and chairperson, Ronnie Screwvala, contributing INR 212 crore. The remaining funds were raised from other minority stakeholders. The rights issue follows upGrad’s $210 million funding round in August 2022 and comes after upGrad’s consolidated net loss rose to INR 626.6 crore in FY22 from INR 211.1 crore in FY21. The edtech company has raised $555 million across multiple funding rounds since 2021 and was on an acquisition spree in 2022, but layoffs have followed.
The layoffs at upGrad’s group companies, Harappa Education and upGrad Campus, were unfortunate outcomes of the pandemic’s impact on the edtech industry. The industry has suffered a significant funding decline in 2022, with a fall of over 44% in edtech funding compared to the previous year, according to Inc42 data. This drop in funding has put pressure on edtech companies to streamline their operations and cut costs, which may have led to the layoffs at upGrad’s group companies.