On 26 February, Internshala’s signature yellow-and-blue colours were punctuated with striking red balloons swaying across its offices. The red represented Upgrad, the edtech company that had acquired the internship-and-online-training platform with a 90%Economic TimesEdtech firm Upgrad acquires skilling firm Internshala stock swap for Rs 100 crore. 

After a takeover spree between 2020 and 2022—which included 12 emergency acquisitions—Upgrad was back with a bid, after a four-year hiatus. 

In the interim, it had salvaged its financials somewhat, nearly tripling its revenue to Rs 1,500 crore in FY25 even as losses shrunk to Rs 274 crore, a third of what they were earlier. Notably, the company had turned Ebitda positive for the first time.

Bolstered by this, the first lunge Upgrad made was for test-prep edtech Unacademy. That would have marked a massive consolidation in a sector that has been languishing since Byju’s implosion around 2024. But the acquisition fell throughEconomic TimesUpGrad calls off Unacademy deal, cites valuation concerns  over differences in valuation. 

That’s when the gaze shifted to 15-year-old Internshala. “The contexts [of these companies] are entirely different, and so naturally the strategic reason for looking at them would be different as well,” said Chirag Samdaria, head of corporate strategy and growth at Upgrad. Internshala, he said, added an early-career distribution layer that they previously accessed only through partnerships. 

The implication? Upgrad will soon dabble in all parts of the professional lifecycle, from that first internship after graduation to executive courses for mid-career professionals. 

At the helm is co-founder Ronnie Screwvala, who stepped into a more “hands on” operational role after the other co-founder and managing director, Mayank Kumar, quit in late 2024. To his credit, Screwvala sold his earlier media company UTV to Disney for $1.4 billion and, through his VC firm, has managed incredibly lucrative investments in companies such as Lenskart and Zivame. 

But 11 years—and numerous iterations—later, can he really turn Upgrad around? 

In a post-AI and -Byju’s world, upskilling courses by edtech platforms like these have lost their sheenInc42Can The Indian Edtech Sector Make A Comeback This Year?

© The Ken