These days in the whole world the number of online education platforms is intensely increasing and causing huge competition among those emerging online startup educational ventures. upGrad is one of those startup ventures which has grown by bounds and leap in the past few years. It is an educational technology firm and is an online platform for higher education that provides various industry-oriented programs, invented and delivered in collaboration with top industry experts and world-class faculty. In this case study, we will brief about the journey of upGrad and its founders and marketing strategies.
The Founders of the Company
In the year 2015, the online education platform upGrad was launched with the combination of equal efforts from the three co-founders of the company who are currently leading different sections within the company upGrad. The co-founders of the company are:
–Ronnie Screwvala: Ronnie Screwvala is an entrepreneur and at upGrad he is currently holding the position of executive chairman as well.
–Phalgun Kompalli: Phalgun Kompalli leads the university relations wing and the company’s growth operations. He is a passed out student from IIT Delhi and holds a proud position in the Forbes 30 under 30 cohort.
–Mayank Kumar: Mayank Kumar is also a former student of IIT Delhi and looks after all the team building, strategic partnership, and overall growth at upGrad. He also has an experience of more than 10 years in the fields of education as an advisor and an investor.
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The History of the Company
The online platform upGrad was introduced with a goal to serve existing professionals to stay industry-relevant and gain more specializations mainly when technologies are getting old at a huge pace. Unlike Vedantu and Byjus, upGrad never targeted college or school students as their targeted potential audience.
Their initial platform was designed to make the individuals aware of what is required to become a successful entrepreneur and to make them more familiar with the new term Entrepreneurship. Currently, upGrad has created some of the best India top online specialization programs which have become very popular as it is designed by world-class entrepreneurs who have made and influenced the lives of millions of aspiring entrepreneurs and professionals.
The company upGrad focuses on the 3C’s concept which is Career, Content, and Coach. One of the co-founders Ronnie Screwvala said that the success journey of the ed-tech startup venture upGrad focuses on the 3C concept of approach. In terms of ‘coach’ for example the online platform has set down the programs designed according to the likes of professor Sandagopan who is a director of IIT Bangalore, Harsh Bhogle, and Chetan Bhagat.
The ed-tech company upGrad boasts more than 50 faculty members and over 250 industry experts from renowned global and national universities which includes Duke CE, Liverpool John Moores University, Deakin Business school, Jamia Hamdard Univ, MICA, Jindal Global Law school, IIT madras and so on.
In terms of content for instance, currently, the online platform is providing more than 7,000 hours of education and learning which they have intended to increase to 14000 by the end of the fiscal year 2022. Moreover, upGrad is targeting the complete satisfaction of the learner as now it is having an average session rating of 4.55 which the platform is expecting to take as closer as possible to rating 5.
The Courses upGrad Offers
The courses which are offered by the upGrad platform are ideal for individuals looking to upgrade their knowledge and skillset or thinking to change their job profiles, first-time job seekers, or graduates. It provides programs of specialization mainly in the following categories:
-Blockchain
-Machine Language
-Digital Marketing
-Artificial Intelligence
-Data Science
-MBA
upGrad also provides an opportunity to serve a few programs that assure job opportunities after the completion of the course. The upGrad platform has entered into a deal with India top leading IT companies like Wipro and Infosys.
Marketing Strategies and Revenue Model of upGrad
The ed-tech platform upGrad is fundamentally a Business to business company. The individuals who want to take up the course and wish to enrol need to pay the fees as mentioned then and there. Only a fragment of the company upGrad revenue comes directly from the employers who do customized courses processed according to the size and needs of their team of employees. The ed-tech company upGrad India CEO Arjun Mohan claimed that upGrad spends most of its budget for marketing in digital marketing and tv ads which includes promotional guest posts, social media ads, google ads, and so on. In 2020, for instance, if the company has set up a budget for marketing of around Rs 175 crores, it would spend 75 crores out of it for various digital marketing mediums and the rest 100 cores on tv ads. In the year 2020 during IPL which was broadcasted from UAE upGrad started with an aggressive deal of marketing with Star Network India for the advertisement and promotion of its platform.
Conclusion
upGrad is an educational technology firm and is an online platform for higher education that provides various industry-oriented programs. It has created some of the best India top online specialization programs which have become very popular as it is designed by world-class entrepreneurs who have made and influenced the lives of millions of aspiring entrepreneurs and professionals. upGrad has set the target to cross the mark of 5 million members of alumni within the end of the year 2025 and the members include working individual professionals who will be enrolling for staying industry-relevant and upskilling. Therefore the company upGrad is working day and night to come up with more specialization programs developed by world-class global universities and the degrees will have international recognition. upGrad does not have any direct rivalry businesses such as Byjus and Vedantu and is thus currently enjoying a monopoly in the market of India.
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