upGrad acquires Centum Learning

September 15, 2022 at 07:10 AM EDT

upGrad, Asia’s largest higher edtech company announces the 100% acquisition of corporate training solutions leader Centum Learning (“Centum”) in a share swap deal.

With this transaction, Bharti Enterprises Limited and its affiliates (together “BEL”) are joining upGrad’s cap table.

Centum is expected to clock a revenue of ~USD 21 Mn (INR 170 crores) in FY23.

Headquartered in New Delhi, Centum was formed in 2007 and currently offers impact-based training to corporates as well as vocational, and educational training to schools and college learners to make them either self-employed or meaningfully employed.

Through its proprietary Centum 5D™ training methodology and use of its Learning eXperience Platform (LXP)- Centum LearnPro®, Centum has been enabling 360-degree learning solutions right from entry-level professionals to mid-level leaders with direct and measurable business impacts. With over 3000 L&D specialists, Centum Learning has trained more than 2 million people while also impacting 400+ corporates across India & Africa.

In addition, Centum’s Africa operations boast a team size of 50+ local L&D professionals who are empowering millions with high-quality learning outcomes through customized vernacular training, content & digital learning platform.

With a total strength of over 2000 employees, Centum’s business will continue to operate independently under the leadership guidance of Sanjay Bahl, Managing Director, and CEO.

Commenting on the development, Mayank Kumar, Co-founder & MD, and Gaurav Kumar – President, Corporate Development of upGrad said, “Enterprise workforce upskilling is a supercritical need; however, the sector remains highly fragmented. upGrad has always seen enterprise upskilling as a strategic growth driver and we are making some nonlinear movements to reinvent B2B learning in India and create an integrated LifeLongLearning ecosystem for our stakeholders.”

“We are passionate about what we do. It gives us a great sense of pride in working with people to transform their lives and support the realization of their full potential. We have put in years of hard work building a bespoke training and content portfolio that makes new-age learning more immersive and outcome-oriented for both corporates & individuals. Both upGrad and Centum are committed to driving outcomes for their learners and therefore, I am excited about combining the two synergies for creating a scalable portfolio for continued results,” added Sanjay Bahl, Managing Director & CEO, Centum Learning.

"Both upGrad and Centum take great pride in transforming the lives of working professionals, and the trajectory of their companies through our dedicated focus on life long learning and personal growth. We are excited at the opportunity of combining our complementary skills to build a scalable portfolio across the value chain,” added Rajeev Vasudeva, Chairman, Centum Learning Ltd.

About upGrad

upGrad - started in 2015 is a pioneer in the online education revolution, focused on powering career success for a global workforce of over 1.3 billion. It is one of the few Integrated LifeLongLearning Tech Companies in the world - spanning the college learner to the working professional from the age group of 18-50 years and across Undergrad courses, Campus & Job Linked Programs, studying abroad, short form to executive programs to Degrees, Masters and Doctoral - with a learner base of over 3 million across 100+ countries and over 300 University partners and a robust enterprise business with a client base of 1000 companies worldwide.