Edtech unicorn upGrad has raised $210 million in a funding round at a $2.25 billion valuation led by ETS Global, one of the world’s largest providers of global entrance exams such as GRE and TOEFL, led by media veteran Bodhi Tree led the round, and the investment vehicle was founded by the likes of Uday Shankar and James Murdoch.

Kaizen Management Advisors in Singapore, Bharti Airtel‘s family office, Narotam Sekhsaria family office (Ambuja Cements and ACC‘s family office) and Artisan Investments (Arcelor Mittal’s Lakshmi Mittal’s family office) and existing investors Temasek, IFC (International Finance Corporation) And IIFL also participated in the round, the company said.

upGrad said its founders Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar and Phalgun Kompalli also invested $12.5 million in the round to maintain their more than 50% ownership of the edtech unicorn.

The company will use the funds to expand its team from the current 4,800 employees to 7,600 employees over the next 3 months. The unicorns will also include approximately 170 full-time faculty members, 1,600 teachers and more than 5,000 contracted coaches and mentors.

upGrad claims its project completion rate is over 80% and says 40% of the company’s total revenue is achieved through repetitions and referrals.

upGrad said it is on track to achieve total annual revenue of $400-500 million during FY23 (2022-23), of which about 45% of the total revenue will come from its own-brand online courses and programmes.

To be sure, upGrad’s revenue for the year ended March 2021 (FY21) was Rs 302.6 crore ($40.8 million), according to the company’s filing with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). The company has yet to file financial results for the year ended March 2022. In FY21, the company reported a loss of Rs 211.1 crore ($28.5 million).

upGrad’s multi-million-dollar fundraising and aggressive recruiting plans come as India’s edtech companies, including the most valuable unicorns like Unacademy, Byju’s and Vedantu, see a surge in demand for their services from hundreds of employees dismissed in the circumstances. Slowing demand hit revenue forecasts for these ed-tech companies, forcing investors to remain calm about the sector, especially in the later stages. Edtech companies in India will cut nearly 6,000 jobs in 2022 alone.

However, investors continue to be bullish on India’s education market. Early-stage investments in Indian edtech companies bucked the trend, growing more than 2.5x in the first seven months of 2022.