We are very clear about the year 2027 for us to list, says upGrad chairman Ronnie Screwvala

"There's some inorganic growth that we're thinking about and we need to get our organic growth to a certain level. We are very clear about the year 2027 for us to list," upGrad co-founder and chairman Ronnie Screwvala told Mint. “It's good that several ed-techs like Crizac, Veranda Learning Solutions, and, of course, PhysicsWallah have listed. All in all, its good for the space, no question about that."

The company's former managing director and co-founder Mayank Kumar had said in 2024 the company was eyeing a public market debut in two years.

The company's focus on its international business comes at a time when upGrad is eyeing acquisitions in the country, including some parts of beleaguered Byju's as well as exploring a potential share-swap deal for Unacademy valued at $300-400 million, according to multiple media reports. In such a deal, the company making the acquisition, instead of paying in cash, offers up its own shares to the M&A target's investors or owners.

A risk capital expert said that while recent listings such as that of PhysicsWallah have opened up the market for more edtech listings, the stock's performance should be tracked for at least a full year before drawing sector-wide conclusions.

Madhavan Srivatsan, senior partner, who's been advising on private equity and venture capital deals at Emerald Law said, “Any edtech company preparing for an IPO must ensure that it can deliver consistent returns to public shareholders, which necessitates the strengthening of its revenue and income streams."

Betting on global

Overall, Screwvala said that the company was targeting 25-30% year-on-year growth with four segments of its business-to-consumer vertical being the main drivers: international learning, international study abroad, its India study abroad programme, and degrees from Indian universities.

The Temasek-backed edtech went global back in 2021, opening up an office in Singapore. In the last two years, the startup has clocked a 40% compound annual growth rate for its international B2C business. Revenues of the segment were not revealed. upGrad's consolidated revenue rose 5.5% to ₹1,569.3 crore in FY25, up from ₹1,487.6 crore in FY24, its filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) showed. Net loss shrank 51% to ₹273.7 crore, compared to ₹559.9 crore in FY24. The improvement was led by a sharp reduction in spending, as the company has been prioritizing profitability ahead of an IPO.

“Our fastest growing geographies are split between the Middle East and Vietnam, growing at 50-60% year-on-year," said Myleeta AgaWilliams, CEO of international consumer business at upGrad. Overall, the international business contributes to 40% of upGrad's B2C revenue, with India still being the major share of the pie.

"The India engines are what I would call the longer tail formats, these are slower. Certifications are a little slower in its growth, said Screwvala. Online courses, or the "long tail"," are what upGrad had initially started the business with before diversifying into other revenue streams both domestically and internationally.

While the company's international business had initially started out targeting the Indian diaspora living abroad, the user mix has shifted over the years as well. Today, the user base is split 50-50 between Indians living abroad and users from across 100 different geographies.

The focus on the Middle East is largely on account of how several governments in the area are focusing heavily on skilling in areas such as artificial intelligence and are doubling down on education in general.

In April, upGrad signed a partnership with Seed Group, a conglomerate of the private office of Sheikh Saeed bin Ahmed Al Maktoum, an umbrella organisation of the royal family of Dubai. “UAE is the foundation market for us, but we're growing fast in Saudi Arabia and will be growing past that into other Middle Eastern markets as well," said AgaWilliams.

In Vietnam, the company's approach has been to adopt a more local, hands-on approach as upGrad found that learners there are more keen to learn in English for the global opportunities but still need help with guidance. To that end, the company has set up what it calls a more “street shop front" business.

Going offline back home

In October, upGrad opened an office in Thailand which is where it will be investing a significant portion of its time growing that business. In fact, for developing markets in south east Asia, the kind of learning that users are looking for is also very different. Users in developed markets often chase high-end certifications or doctorates through a mixture of government supported skilling programmes and private companies like upGrad. “Developing markets are much more broadbased and they don't have that many options available to them, so we can bring in a lot of value and scale," said AgaWilliams.

Earlier this year, upGrad announced that it would be scaling its offline learning sites, currently at 11, to 40 by the end of the fiscal year. The focus with these centres is to tap early career professionals between the ages of 21 and 26 who have finished college but are finding it difficult to get a job.

By the end of the next year Screwvala said the company hoped to have 100 centres spread across the country. “About 30-35 of them would be in the top six cities and then the rest would almost be one per city."

Traditionally, opening offline education centres includes either building it from the ground up or renting space, not to mention adding furnishings, hiring people as well as advertising and marketing. But Screwvala isn't worried, “It's a nine-month operating expenditure break even and a 15-month capital expenditure break even."

That being said, there are no plans to take the offline business global, at least for the time being. “Apart from Vietnam, we've not identified a market where there is that kind of scale just yet," said AgaWilliams.