While the firm didn't disclose the deal's value, the round reportedly valued Internshala at ₹100 Cr.

With the acquisition, upGrad aims to fuse early employment with its skilling and higher education focused platform, providing services for the full career lifecycle.

Internshala will continue to operate as an independent entity while leveraging upGrad's technology expertise and ecosystem positioning in the edtech space.

"Joining hands with upGrad will allow us to amplify our impact by skilling millions of candidates, offer pre-trained talent to companies at scale, and together become the default launchpad for every graduate's career," Internshala's founder and CEO Sarvesh Agrawal said.

According to upGrad cofounder and CEO Ronnie Screwala, Internshala has been growing at a pace of 30-40%. upGrad is aiming for an over 2X growth in Internshala's revenue to ₹100 Cr in the next two years aided by investments in AI-led talent matching and enterprise hiring models along with overall product innovation.

In a B2B model, Internshala will seek tie-ups with enterprises and small businesses to aid them in directly hiring fresh talent, working with upGrad's existing enterprise learning and development businesses to achieve this. Additionally, it will monetise directly from candidates through a pro offering.

upGrad's M&A Play

The acquisition is in line with upGrad's inorganic growth strategy, which has seen it buy multiple companies over the past few years.

In 2022 alone, it acquired five companies, including enterprise learning and development platform Work Better to strengthen its B2B suite. Shortly after, it followed with acquiring higher education startup Talentedge, test-prep platform Exampur, recruitment and staffing company WOLVES India and data science institute INSOFE.

While the M&A momentum has slowed down for upGrad since, it expressed interest to bid on embattled edtech rival BYJU'S parent company Think & Learn, including its relatively more lucrative K-12 vertical Great Learning and coaching centre business Aakash Educational Services.

The Ronnie Screwaala-led edtech startup was also in talks to merge with another rival, Unacademy, but the deal fell through last month due to valuation differences.

Founded in 2015 by Screwala, Mayank Kumar, Phalgun Kompalli and Ravijot Chugh, upGrad claims to be India's largest higher education platform that provides programs for students and working professionals in fields like data science, AI/ML, software development, cloud & DevOps and digital marketing.

The startup has raised over $320 Mn from investors like IFC, 360 ONE Asset, IIFL Finance, among others. It trimmed net loss in FY25 by over 50% owing to a severe cut back in expenses.

The deal was finalised amid an extended downturn in the edtech sector that is yet to recover from slumps that first emerged in 2023. Funding for edtech startups dipped 56% year-on-year in 2025 to $249 Mn from $572 Mn invested in 2024, as per Inc42's Annual Indian Startup Trends Report, 2025, while only five acquisitions took place within the sector during the year.