One of India's largest online higher education companies, upGrad has reportedly acquired the Insofe (International School of Engineering), one of the leading data science institutes in India, in a sharp share swap deal of $33 million.
This mars as the seventh acquisition undertaken by upGrad in the past couple of years. Under this transaction, Insofe's investors and management will be taking a little under 1% equity of upGrad at a valuation of $2 billion.
Insofe being a leader in artificial engineering and data sciences courses offers mixed offline-online courses with two big spaces in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
Ronnie Screwvala, co-founder and chairman, upGrad, said that Insofe is based in India but stands for comprehensive excellence in machine learning (ML), data science, and artificial intelligence (AI). As data and analytics courses does well for upGrad, the acquisition will help the firm reach the next specialization level.
To drive organic growth, upGrad is also chasing acquisitions, cautiously handpicking companies like Talentedge, Knowledgehut, Rekrut India, Study Partners, and Impartus for helping create a meaningful bunch of courses that will suffice the needs of customers' education during their life stages.
Mr. Screwvala states that upGrad wishes to be a lifetime partner for anyone after K-12. Whether post-graduation or under graduation, a diploma, or a short course, a doctorate or a degree from a top global institute, the platform wishes to be the destination to be reached.
upGrad strongly believes that people will always be looking out to pursue courses throughout their lives in the future, Mr. Screwvala added.
Moreover, with this acquisition, upGrad will be gaining an edge in ML and AL courses, which are now becoming very popular in India owing to the budding demand for talent with these skills from startups and corporates.
Source Credit - https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-bytes/upgrad-acquires-top-data-science-institute-insofe-in-33-million-share-swap-deal/articleshow/91241220.cms