India's edtech company upGrad has appointed Mukesh Mundra as its chief financial officer, as the firm pushes ahead with global expansion plans and awaits regulatory approval for its acquisition of Unacademy.
Based in Mumbai, Mundra will oversee upGrad's finance and administration functions, including financial strategy, governance, business partnering and operational scale-building.
He joins the Ronnie Screwvala-led company from JioStar, where he served as head of finance. Before that, he spent more than eight years as CFO of Viacom18 Media Private Limited, leading financial strategy and business transformation initiatives.
A chartered accountant and certified financial analyst, Mundra brings more than 26 years of experience across media, telecom, manufacturing and consumer businesses.
Earlier in his career, he held leadership roles at Idea Cellular, where he worked on the acquisition of Spice Communications and the formation of the Indus Towers joint venture. He has also worked with Grasim Industries and Anand Rathi Group.
Mukesh Mundra said, 'upGrad is at an exciting stage of growth as it continues to shape the future of lifelong learning and workforce development. The opportunity to build financially resilient and scalable systems while supporting innovation and business transformation is incredibly exciting.'
Ronnie Screwvala, co-founder and chairperson of upGrad, said Mundra's experience in finance, governance and business transformation would play 'a critical role as we continue scaling our global operations and strengthening our long-term growth roadmap'.
The appointment comes as upGrad awaits approval from the Competition Commission of India for its proposed all-stock acquisition of Unacademy, valued at around Rs 2,055 crore ($218 million). The deal represents a significant drop from Unacademy's peak valuation of $3.4 billion in 2021.
upGrad said the acquisition will help it expand into the online test preparation market and broaden offerings for existing users. Unacademy is also expected to hold cash reserves of Rs 900 crore to Rs 950 crore when the transaction closes.
upGrad was reported to have turned profitable in the first 11 months of FY26, with provisional and unaudited figures showing a profit of Rs 38 crore on revenue of Rs 1,532 crore.
The company is projected to close FY26 with revenue of around Rs 1,972 crore and profit above Rs 60 crore.
In FY25, upGrad reduced its net loss by more than 50% to Rs 273.7 crore, while operating revenue rose 6% year-on-year to Rs 1,569.3 crore.
upGrad was valued at about $1.7 billion in a recent report, lower than its reported peak valuation of $2.25 billion in 2022.