Edtech Startup upGrad Acquires Recruitment Platform Rekrut India This acquisition will boost the edtech's career engine by opening up wider placement opportunities and facilitating its learners to contact Rekrut's hiring network

Mumbai-based online higher education company upGrad has acquired recruitment and staffing solutions platform Rekrut India, for an undisclosed amount.

The edtech startup anticipates that the acquisition of Rekrut will augment its career engine by opening up wider placement opportunities and propelling accessibility of its learners to Rekrut's hiring partners, said a report.

The pandemic has merely augmented the need for specialized skills. With many citizens facing job loss, layoffs, and income cuts, there is a seemingly a mounting need for upskilling. Though edtech seems to be the flavor of the season, the idea of helping people upskill themselves came to Mayank Kumar, Ronnie Screwvala, and Phalgun Kompalli in 2015, later in 2020, Rohit Dhar, and Puneet Tanwar joined the core team.

"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," remarked upGrad co-founders Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, and Phalgun Kompalli, in a joint statement, in a report.

The recruitment platform claims to have assembled an extensive reach through its manifold hiring models which allow abridging hiring. The company is presently functioning directly with many commercial startups, MSMEs, and large enterprises. Post the acquisition, the establishment has been said to continue to function autonomously, with Ajay Shah continuing as the managing director.

"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," upGrad core team further remarked.

Given the enormous budding of the recruitment sector in the ongoing pandemic, the edtech startup considers an autonomous business in this division will offer sturdy and non-linear expansion prospects for the edtech giant.

"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," said Ajay Shah, managing director, Rekrut.

"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."

This acquisition comes at a time when online education has started to gain greater acceptance with recruiters, thereby thawing the age-old offline and online perception divide when it came to hiring talent.

With its expertise and core business being driving placements, the company hopes to boost its current volume tenfold and drive meaningful career outcomes for learners, said the report.

According to a statement issued in the report, UpGrad said it flocked over 1,000 career transitions in 2020, with an average salary hike of 44 per cent. Furthermore, in June 2020, the online higher education startup allocated an expense of INR 150 crore to expand courses offered through its platform, acquisitions, and partnerships and announced its partnership with Jamia Hamdard University and O.P. Jindal Global University.