Online higher education technology company upGrad has acquired recruitment and staffing solutions firm Rekrut India to increase career outcomes for its learners.
The financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Meanwhile, the acquisition comes less than a month after the Mumbai-based EdTech firm has acquired The GATE Academy (TGA), a Bengaluru-based premier coaching institute, which made the company enter the test preparation space.
With this acquisition, upGrad goes from being just an EdTech platform to one with hiring solutions, allowing the platform to have complete involvement in the lifecycle of a learner – from education to employment.
Founded in 2020, Rekrut India simplifies hiring for organizations. It provides solutions to build organizations’ human capital through its deep sectoral expertise, pioneering products, extensive network, and patented technology, reducing the complexity of the recruitment process and ensuring organizations always stay ahead of change. With a network of over 100 recruiting experts, the company is currently working closely with corporate startups, MSMEs, and large enterprises.
Commenting on the acquisition, upGrad co-founders Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, and Phalgun Kompalli, said in a joint statement,
“Rekrut will now open the floodgate of career opportunities for upGrad learners. Hence, we are thrilled to announce the onboarding of the team, a significant step in making upGrad a career powerhouse for professionals. This move is integrally aligned with our company’s vision of powering career success for every member of the global workforce as their trusted lifelong learning partner.”
Post the acquisition, Rekrut India will become a 100 percent subsidiary of upGrad, and the firm will continue to operate independently, with Ajay Shah continuing as the Managing Director, said a statement.
Ajay Shah, Managing Director, Rekrut India, said,
“Currently in the market we operate in, we don’t give jobs to people; we give people to jobs. This is predominantly due to the skill gap in India. The upGrad-Rekrut synergy will disrupt the ecosystem and build an end-to-end supply chain of manpower, where Rekrut is the demand partner providing cutting-edge jobs and upGrad will supply the highly skilled, and future-ready talent. We will be taking the learners’ pipeline to the relevant industry stakeholders thereby helping them find the right talent with speed, while in parallel offering a wider choice of career transition for upGrad learners.”
upGrad said that given the massive potential of the recruitment sector, which in itself is a Rs 15,000 crore market, the company firmly believes an independent business in this sector will provide strong non-linear growth opportunities for the company.
Prior to the Rekrut acquisition, upGrad said its in-house career services team was reaching out to around 100-200 hiring partners in a year and drove over 1,000 career transitions in 2020, with an average salary hike of 44 percent.
