India’s leading edtech player upGrad has announced that it will acquire Australia’s Global Study Partners (GSP).
GSP, founded in 2015, is the largest study abroad company with its headquarter in Sydney.
GSP founder and chief executive Elaine Starkey believes that this deal with upGrad can expect significant growth in quality student enrolments.
GSP has a network of over 600 institutions in Australia, Britain, Canada, and the US, and over 1,300 recruitment partners.
These partners include education and migration agents, test preparation centres, alumni associations,schools, etc.
Ram Gorlamandala, Founder and CEO at Tat Capital, congratulated both upGrad and GSP on this deal:
“This acquisition further validates Tat Capital’s vision around #Australia & India markets & is delighted to have been part of the Global Study Partners journey over the last 5 years in many ways.”
upGrad, started in 2015, is now a pioneer in the online education revolution in India.
It offers more than 100 courses in collaboration with top-notch global/local universities like Deakin Business School (Australia), Duke CE (US), Michigan State University (US), Liverpool Business School (UK), IIT Madras (India), IIM Kozhikode (India) and others, has empowered over 10 lakh registered learners over 50 countries across the world.
upGrad has been growing through acquisitions and has earmarked USD 250 million for this purpose.
It has entered into an acquisition agreement to buy 100 per cent of GSP for AUD 16 million with a commitment of a further AUD 10 million in future.
It is promoted by Ronnie Screwvala and this acquisition marks its foray into the study abroad space.
Chairman and co-founder Screwvala said in a statement:
“As an integrated edtech leader, we span the entire gamut of a learner’s need from the age of 18-50, and in that, study abroad is a key growth initiative for us – not just out of India, which is one of the two largest markets but also for our learners internationally.”
Australia is one of the biggest destination markets for Indian students.
upGrad expects growth to accelerate further, and sees the number of students opting for overseas higher education doubling to approximately 1.8 million by 2024.
It said 8 million students would be spending as much as $85 billion in online overseas higher education, as online courses become more accessible amid the pandemic-led restrictions.
