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Tag: upGrad

  • upGrad partners with The Womb to transform learning landscape in India

    upGrad partners with The Womb to transform learning landscape in India

    MUMBAI: upGrad, India’s largest online higher education company in a most recent development, ropes ‘The Womb’ – a leading brand & creative agency/consultancy to chart out an impactful communication drive for the brand. The agency will be responsible for driving the brand communication strategy for upGrad, thereby propelling a long-term brand building by the power of creative and experimental storytelling.

    upGrad  CEO India Arjun Mohan said, “Given the COVID2019 sentiment, it is imperative for us to understand the evolving consumer preferences and derive actionable insights which in turn, will help us deliver appropriate results. We are excited to onboard 'The Womb' to spearhead our upcoming branding and communication drive. The agency, with its right balance of strategic and creative capabilities, will help us create a compelling business and brand proposition, thereby transforming the online learning landscape in India and overseas.”

    The Womb  founding Partner Kawal Shoor said, “From the era of doctors, engineers, and CAs, India’s come a long way, and is now firmly part of the global new age economy. The service sector is the fastest growing sector in the country.  New careers in the areas of technology, data and finance are now the way to grow faster in life. India’s traditional education system has struggled to keep pace with the needs of modern industry, and this is where new age education brands like upGrad have unique opportunities. As any young brand and business, getting it right early is crucial for transformative growth. And this is where we come in. There are no proven ways to communicate online education brands, and blank pages are what we like the most.”

    The Womb  founding partner Navin Talreja adds, “The team at upGrad believes in doing things that have never been done before. So it was a great culture fit with what we believe and the work we create. Having said that their faith and trust in us to award us the business without a pitch creates a huge sense of responsibility to ensure that the brand wins in the market. We are up for the challenge and excited. Look forward to this journey.” 

  • Voot partners with upGrad, expands content play to edutainment

    Voot partners with upGrad, expands content play to edutainment

    MUMBAI: Leading streaming platform Voot has tied up with the largest online higher education company upGrad. This opens a doorway for consumers and working professionals to seamlessly access the best of entertainment and education videos, all under one roof.

    Voot, home to hours of exciting entertainment content across formats and genres, with this thoughtful partnership, is pioneering the cause for young Indian professionals by providing them quality upskilling content as part of its repertoire. A dedicated upGrad segment on the Voot app will unleash its viewers into a pool of informative content around the new-age domains of data science, blockchain, tech and management, which are carefully curated by upGrad’s in-house content team to help working professionals enhance their employability quotient.

    Additionally, to provide in-depth and accurate knowledge, the playlist will also include new-age anecdotes in the form of snackable videos and sessions hosted by industry leaders and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). The segment will include upGrad Shotgyaan, Crash course in Data Science and a recently curated interesting list of Work From Home (WFH) tech tips as starters with frequent additions being made to the binge-watch content library.

    Voot AVOD business head  Akash Banerji said, “In these times, with digital assuming a decisive role in a user’s life, our objective with Voot is to deliver a truly enriching and inclusive content slate that elevates the user experience and engagement. Blending our entertainment proposition with learning through this partnership with upGrad, is not only an innovative solution for young minds, but also enables us to widen our reach and user base."

    Announcing the partnership, upgrade corporate development president Gaurav Kumar said, “Young India is hooked on to the OTT platforms for their daily dose of entertainment and therefore, it is exciting to have a special window that seamlessly lands them to a new-age upskilling content playlist, that will add up to their professional growth at large. With our insightful storytelling format and innovative execution, we look forward to shedding the stereotypical emotion attached with education of being serious.”

  • Ed-tech platforms reap gains during lockdown

    Ed-tech platforms reap gains during lockdown

    MUMBAI: When you are cooped up in your home courtesy the Covid-19 lockdown, you can spend your time cribbing or carping or learning a new skill by signing up with an online platform to make up for a gap you did not learn in university or school. It looks like Indians are preferring the latter, if one goes by the flurry of signups with education or edtech platforms. Signups aside, learners are also getting glued for longer on online courses daily at about 45 minutes as against 20 minutes prior to the explosive spread of the COVID-19 virus.

    Take the case of the Ronnie Screwvala-backed upGrad which took front page ads in mainline newspapers earlier this year.  According to its co-founder & chairman Mayank Kumar, the inflection point commenced in the second last week of February. Says he: “From that week (17-24 February) onwards, we started witnessing exponential traction towards our platform. In the last week of February, leads (interested learners / prospects) increased by around 34 per cent compared to the week before. In the first week of March, our interest went up by 75 per cent as well.”

    Additionally, discloses Kumar, the programme completion rate at upGrad is 80 per cent as of now, which is relatively high and he is quite certain that it is going to increase, as online education is no longer an option but becoming mainstream.

    Unacademy too has seen an eye popping uptake of its services. It recorded a whopping one billion minutes of watch time in the month of March across its platforms and YouTube channels.

    “We announced over 20,000 free live classes on the platform to ensure learners’ education is not obstructed amidst the COVID-19 crisis. We also opened up our platform for all educational institutions such as schools and colleges to conduct live classes for their respective students,” says Unacademy VP marketing Karan Shroff. “The number of new enrollments increased considerably during the month of March. We witnessed an increase of 110 per cent in new subscribers leading to over 1.5 million learners learning on the Unacademy platform, since the beginning of March.”

    Karan highlights that even searches for competitive courses like SSC, bank and railway entrance exams, UPSC have multiplied manifold.  Users are logging on to the platform to improve their knowledge of subjects and learn how to improve their exam scores through mock tests, quizzes, and feedback from educators.

    Schoolguru Eduserve founder & CEO Shantanu Rooj noticed some behavioural changes amongst the students as the daily logins have gone up by 2.5 times. He also highlighted that the app downloads have gone up, an indication that those who had earlier procrastinated their studies are completing them now. The participation in the virtual sessions has gone up. Course completion rates have also increased.

    He adds: “We have onboarded about 4000 new paid students for the degree programmes in March over and above our current 200,000 students. We have seen about 12-15 per cent of daily active users to monthly active user ratio."

    Simplilearn CEO Krishna  Kumar says the subjects which are traditionally popular like  data science and cyber security have gained importance during this lockdown.  There is a lot of uptake in the enquiries. “We have close to 10,000 enrolments in regular months. March was also pretty much the same. The real testing time is going to be April when the lockdown was extended. The last few weeks of March were challenging as people were still adjusting to the reality. April onwards we are hoping for an increase as people are sitting at homes they have more time.”

    At upGrad the domain of data science is the most popular, followed by digital marketing. Areas of machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) are also popular considering the current workforce. According to Mayank Kumar, the digital macro-trend, coupled with an increase in usage of data, is going to now drive the workplace ecosystem.

    He further adds: “We had brought global MBA programmes to India towards the end of February with Deakin University and Liverpool Business School, which eventually got popular in the following month. Both the programmes are seeing interest amongst working professionals, and around 50,000 individuals and counting have shown interest so far.”

    Experts believe that the current environment is a net positive for online education. It took a global pandemic to bring online education into the mainstream, which has otherwise played second fiddle to the offline model.

    Upgrad's Kumar elaborates: “Two to three weeks ago (in March), we used to get 2,500 enquiries a day, but there has been a 50 per cent upside with over 3,800 enquiries per day.”

    “Additionally, in Q4 upGrad recorded over 100 per cent Q-0-Q jump, as it expanded its portfolio twofold in the last quarter by adding new programmes under its management and data verticals. With our outcome-based learning approach, which comprises deep subject knowledge, finest university credentials, strong mentorship and finally steadfast placement support, upGrad is in a position to command the highest ARPU of Rs 2.4 lakh in the Indian online education sector,” he adds.

    In March Unacademy witnessed a significant rise in the number of daily active users and also a sharp increase in the views per week. The daily active users increased to around 500,000 per day and viewers per week for the free special classes increased by 150 per cent.

    At Simplilearn enquiries have grown by 30 to 40 per cent. On a quarterly basis they have 50,000 monthly active users. However, at present 75,000 monthly active users are scouring the platform for upskiling themselves.

    Simplilearn and Schoolguru are opting for LinkedIn and other social media sites as the best medium to promote their content. Schoolguru is also using direct e-mail marketing and PR as marketing platforms. This apart, the edtech platforms are also using events (both physical and digital) sporadically and participating in several industry events and rolling out  reports and whitepapers from time to time.

    Shroff says: “Our marketing efforts are focused on supporting this business vision and helping learners stay focused and prepare for their dream exams, even during this crisis. As part of these efforts to help build awareness that learning never stops with Unacademy, we are running our "Let’s Crack It" campaign on TV and other digital formats.”

    Unacademy recently launched the second edition of Legends on Unacademy – a programme for   learners where they bring well-known personalities to teach live classes on the platform. In this edition, they have Shashi Tharoor, Kiran Bedi, Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma who will teach about international relations, crisis management, motivation, and determination, among other topics. In the first edition, that took place in early March, they had legendary cricketers such as Brian Lara, Bret Lee and Jonty Rhodes who took live classes on mental strength, dealing with failure, etc.

    In order to create awareness during the lockdown period Schoolguru has offered its learning experience platform (Lurningo) free of cost for the first three months across various colleges and universities in the country.

    Indeed, Covid-19 has left deep scars across many sectors which have been locked down. But, for the edtech industry, it has been a boon of sorts. And the men behind it are probably glad, as it has helped accelerate their business plans. Which is clearly good news for the promoters and their investors.

  • Edtech major upGrad and Big Bang Music launch ‘#AageKiSoch’, an anthem to encourage young India

    Edtech major upGrad and Big Bang Music launch ‘#AageKiSoch’, an anthem to encourage young India

    MUMBAI: upGrad, an online higher education company, and Big Bang Music, the new-age pop culture label, is driven towards creating unique musical expressions and experiences have come together to create what can aptly be called the upskill anthem of the nation. #AageKiSoch encourages the youth to spend this time at home productively and engage in activities that will upskill their existing knowledge base in order to prepare for the new world post the COVID-19.

    Written by reality show ‘Dil Hai Hindustani 2’ winner Akshay Dhawan and composed by Shashwat Singh, whose melodies will be featured in AR Rahman's next movie ‘99 Songs’, this never-seen-before collaboration also witnesses leading singing star Jonita Gandhi, rapping for the first time. The music video consists of an ensemble star cast that includes Radhika Apte, Vikrant Massey, Naveen Polishetty, Anto Philip, Fatima Sana Sheikh, Shantanu Maheshwari, Rohit Raj, Aparshakti Khurana, Karan Tacker, Abish Mathew, Akansha Ranjan, Elnaaz Norouzi, and ‘Jordindian’ – Naser and Vineeth.

    Link to the music videos:
    Video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-Um4rDO9vE
    Video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1zo4UrrBvI
    Video 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pd7l1IEiNQ&feature=youtu.be

    Conceptualised by the higher education company upGrad to drive the productive habit of learning from home during quarantine and produced by Big Bang Music and KWAN, the partners have joined forces to bring together this eclectic mix of pop culture icons across film, music, corporate, TV and comedy for the upskill anthem. The three video renditions for the same song have been conceptualised, written, shot and edited in all of 72 hours, being directed remotely on video calls.

    Big Bang Music CEO and co-founder Gaurav Wadhwa said: “These are unprecedented times and while it’s important to keep the spirit alive, it’s more important to gear up for the world to come because we all know there is light at the end of this tunnel. World over, life will now be viewed as before and after the virus – BC and AC will have a new meaning in ‘Before COVID’ and ‘After COVID’ and we need to prepare for that! At Big Bang, we truly believe that music unites like no other and no better time than now to encourage people to use this ‘forced’ time at hand meaningfully."

    “Influencers are an integral part of any campaign, and more so today as they become custodians for keeping the morale high and mindset positive during the pandemic. We have carefully put together renowned and diverse names to be able to reach out to a large cross-section of people and encourage them to be productive while locked down in their homes. It’s been an amazing collaboration where an edtech major has chosen music as their preferred route of disruptive communication,” added Kwan founding partner and COO Dhruv Chitgopekar.

     “While everyone is adapting to the new normal, it’s time we to be cautiously optimistic and look at the silver lining of the pandemic. With this upskill anthem, we want to encourage people to stay home and use the time meaningfully to enhance their skillset which otherwise would have parked in their to-do list. Preparedness for the coming economical storm is essential so that the youth and the working professionals can smoothly bounce back to their careers or make a new transition once we resume to our regular lives,” concluded co-founder and MD upGrad Mayank Kumar.

    As a part of the campaign #AageKiSoch, influencers in the music video will tag their friends and urge them to "Bahar Nahi, Ab Tu #AageKiSoch" epitomising the future-forward thinking that, we need to do during the lockdown. The idea is to create a chain of audience propagating the message of strictly staying at home and using this time to upskill oneself with upGrad's educational programs in the areas of Data, Technology and Management.

  • upGrad persuades working professionals to follow their dreams with the latest brand campaign #RahoAmbitious

    upGrad persuades working professionals to follow their dreams with the latest brand campaign #RahoAmbitious

    MUMBAI: upGrad  today  unveiled  the  first  leg  of  their  brand-new campaign “#RahoAmbitious” with the launch of two TV commercials. The TVC revolves around upGrad’s aim to rekindle the spirit of ambition and passion for learning among today’s working professionals. This campaign will connect with customers across all touchpoints like television, print, digital and social media.

    The 360-degree integrated brand campaign commences with the launch of two TVC’s that will be aired across 70 channels, including Hindi and other vernacular languages, across India.

    Education in India is typically associated with discipline and seriousness and is yet to become a part of the popular culture. To break this taboo tied to education, upGrad has on boarded India's most popular content creators The Viral Fever (TVF) and FilterCopy to shed light upon the campaign within the digital sphere. Such light-hearted, relatable, and humorous content will narrate the relevance of education in various walks of life and showcase how impactful online education has become in today’s day and age.

    Nonetheless, the print-campaign will also be spread across India in English and regional languages tapping into a wider readership of Tier I and Tier II cities.

    Talking about the campaign, Mayank Kumar, co-founder and MD of upGrad says, “With upGrad Raho Ambitious, we embark upon a new journey to provide 1 million working professionals with better learning sphere and equip them with a perfect blend of business acumen and technical capabilities at the same time. The campaign reiterates upGrad’s core belief of outcome-based learning through emotional messaging and real-life career transitioning journeys of learners. Such a twofold approach will not only break the stereotypical notions attached to education, but also reignite viewers hidden ambition.”

    In addition to this, upGrad has also introduced freshly curated content with its new video series to be launched soon on the upGrad App. The new app will be available on Google Play and YouTube. The videos entail tailor-made content focused on the brand’s key narrative- lifelong learning. Divided into 100 episodes of 5 minutes each, upGrad aims to solve the three biggest problems faced by professionals while adopting a new habit, especially when wheeled

    towards lifelong learning-lack of time, lack of money, and lack of intrigue. The content would be free in its initial phase, available for streaming on the upGrad Android App & YouTube, which will also later be available on subscription basis, provided viewers discretion. Apart from this, the brand has also launched ‘upGrad Stand-up Books’ which also features Vicky Kaushal, the face of upGrad, summarizing his life lessons and ‘LifeLong Learning’ from the books he had read in the past in a quirkiest way.

    With this new initiative, upGrad is set to leave its imprints in the minds of consumers and is moving one step ahead to change the way education is imparted across India.

  • upGrad’s first TVC to feature Vicky Kaushal

    upGrad’s first TVC to feature Vicky Kaushal

    MUMBAI: upGrad, India’s leading online education venture focused on building careers of working professionals, unveiled its first ad-campaign. Featuring actor Vicky Kaushal, the film introduces consumers to upGrad and brings the brand idea alive. The film breaks the myth of online education being ineffective by showcasing how impactful the online education space is today and how it is as good as traditional offline education.

    The second part of the TVC campaign is based on the insight that the Indian working professionals are in a state of inertia where they feel that they do not need to go back to learning once they have a job. These films are set to make the customers realize that to remain relevant in today’s day and time, one has no choice but to learn and upskill.

    The campaign sheds light upon upGrad’s unique online power learning approach to learners and demonstrates the influence of upGrad and the role it can play in the learner’s life by giving them the opportunity to transform their careers. It further intends to establish the fact that in this fast changing world of technology, there’s a massive demand for new age skills at the workplace and you need to upskill yourself for a better career.

    Created by Lowe Lintas, the ad campaign showcases upGrad as a brand which plays an important role in learner’s life by acting as an engine of transformation which gives them the ability to put their careers on a high growth trajectory.

    Announcing the launch of the new ad-campaign, Mr. Ronnie Screwvala & Mr. Mayank Kumar, co-founders, upGrad said, “Through this campaign we are trying to create awareness on how upGrad can help learners prepare for the future of work and help them thrive in their career. Online education for professionals is still at a nascent stage in India and to create awareness at a category level, we felt the necessity of a commercial that will change the consumer mindset and is relatable.  Our association with Vicky Kaushal and the new TVC will help us increase our reach & create deeper connect across geographies”.

    Sagar Kapoor, Chief Creative Officer, Lowe Lintas added, “It was an excellent briefing session by the founders that led our creative thinking at upGrad. The vibe was positive and the brief actually spoke about what upGrad can do to lives rather than just what upGrad is and how continuous learning can make sure one keeps navigating his or her career forward. Inspiring stories of how lakhs have already done this successfully spurred us further. All that said the team believed in keeping the message and tone of the communication sprightly and involving. Hence the idea of “life ko karo lift”!

  • UpGrad partners with LetsVenture to educate Angel investors for India

    UpGrad partners with LetsVenture to educate Angel investors for India

    MUMBAI: Online education platform UpGrad led by Ronnie Screwvala and Mayank Kumar and LetsVenture have designed a four to six weeks Angel Investment Programme of a mixture of interactive content and lectures from the world’s leading Angel Investors as well as high-end offline meet-ups for networking opportunities.

    The aim is to give individuals hoping to become investors an unmatched access to the startup ecosystem of the country.

    Due to the significant growth of investment opportunities in the Indian Startup ecosystem, LetsVenture expects more than 4,000 new Angel Investors to join their investment network over the next year. The joint online programme between UpGrad and LetsVenture aims to reach over 2,500 individuals over the next two years.

    “Our programme is designed to satisfy the increasing demands of individuals to be educated in the area of Angel Investing, driven by the strong growth in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India and great developments in the funding landscape. LetsVenture has had huge impact on the positive development in the country and we are extremely excited to partner up with them to educate the next set of investors”, said UpGrad co founder Ronnie Screwvala.

    “Ever since we started LetsVenture, we have seen a significant demand of new Angel Investors to get trained and educated in some of the key areas of Angel Investing. We have done smaller training workshops throughout the years, but we want to make this available to the many more individuals who want to step into this exciting field of investments. We want to make angel investing more accessible to investors living outside of Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. That is why we have partnered with UpGrad to create a first-class programme for the next generation of Angel Investors”, said LetsVenture Co founder and CEO Shanti Mohan.

    “There is keen and strongly growing interest in investing in early stage start-ups. UpGrad & LetsVenture are strongly aligned in their vision to further strengthen and nurture India’s most promising ecosystem of startups and investors and build a global hub of thought-leadership in the area”, said UpGrad Co-founder and MD Mayank Kumar.

    The programme slated to commence in the second quarter of 2016 in India will also be launched in select international markets to give international investors access to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India and in the respective country.

  • UpGrad partners with LetsVenture to educate Angel investors for India

    UpGrad partners with LetsVenture to educate Angel investors for India

    MUMBAI: Online education platform UpGrad led by Ronnie Screwvala and Mayank Kumar and LetsVenture have designed a four to six weeks Angel Investment Programme of a mixture of interactive content and lectures from the world’s leading Angel Investors as well as high-end offline meet-ups for networking opportunities.

    The aim is to give individuals hoping to become investors an unmatched access to the startup ecosystem of the country.

    Due to the significant growth of investment opportunities in the Indian Startup ecosystem, LetsVenture expects more than 4,000 new Angel Investors to join their investment network over the next year. The joint online programme between UpGrad and LetsVenture aims to reach over 2,500 individuals over the next two years.

    “Our programme is designed to satisfy the increasing demands of individuals to be educated in the area of Angel Investing, driven by the strong growth in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India and great developments in the funding landscape. LetsVenture has had huge impact on the positive development in the country and we are extremely excited to partner up with them to educate the next set of investors”, said UpGrad co founder Ronnie Screwvala.

    “Ever since we started LetsVenture, we have seen a significant demand of new Angel Investors to get trained and educated in some of the key areas of Angel Investing. We have done smaller training workshops throughout the years, but we want to make this available to the many more individuals who want to step into this exciting field of investments. We want to make angel investing more accessible to investors living outside of Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. That is why we have partnered with UpGrad to create a first-class programme for the next generation of Angel Investors”, said LetsVenture Co founder and CEO Shanti Mohan.

    “There is keen and strongly growing interest in investing in early stage start-ups. UpGrad & LetsVenture are strongly aligned in their vision to further strengthen and nurture India’s most promising ecosystem of startups and investors and build a global hub of thought-leadership in the area”, said UpGrad Co-founder and MD Mayank Kumar.

    The programme slated to commence in the second quarter of 2016 in India will also be launched in select international markets to give international investors access to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India and in the respective country.

  • UpGrad appoints Anshul Khandelwal as marketing head

    UpGrad appoints Anshul Khandelwal as marketing head

    MUMBAI: Ronnie Screwvala’s UpGrad has appointed Anshul Khandelwal as marketing head effective from March 2016.

     

    Khndelwal will be responsible for driving the marketing, positioning and branding for UpGrad and report to UpGrad MD Mayank Kumar.

     

    In a joint statement, UpGrad co-founder Ronnie Screwvala and Kumar said, “We are happy to have Anshul on board to lead the marketing operations for UpGrad as we continue to expand our portfolio of programs. We look forward to working with Anshul and benefitting from his expertise and out-of-the-box thinking. Education is a large sector and there is a lot of disruptive thoughts that can be executed to build a long standing brand. Together we hope towards achieving and setting new industry benchmarks as we scale up.”

     

    Khandelwal added, “In today’s context, online education is becoming more mainstream and acceptable. This is the way our country has to go. UpGrad, within a very short time since its launch, has made waves in the industry with its holistic approach towards education for professionals.I am very excited about working with the dynamic team to help further their vision and to build on their success.”

     

    Prior to joining UpGrad, Khandelwal worked with BlueStone as VP – marketing where he led brand strategy and positioning, creative development, brand activation, customer acquisition and marketing-led innovations.

     

    He also led new product development initiatives and launches during his stint at 3M’s healthcare division and has worked with companies like Mahindra & Mahindra and GlobalLogic.

  • UpGrad appoints Anshul Khandelwal as marketing head

    UpGrad appoints Anshul Khandelwal as marketing head

    MUMBAI: Ronnie Screwvala’s UpGrad has appointed Anshul Khandelwal as marketing head effective from March 2016.

     

    Khndelwal will be responsible for driving the marketing, positioning and branding for UpGrad and report to UpGrad MD Mayank Kumar.

     

    In a joint statement, UpGrad co-founder Ronnie Screwvala and Kumar said, “We are happy to have Anshul on board to lead the marketing operations for UpGrad as we continue to expand our portfolio of programs. We look forward to working with Anshul and benefitting from his expertise and out-of-the-box thinking. Education is a large sector and there is a lot of disruptive thoughts that can be executed to build a long standing brand. Together we hope towards achieving and setting new industry benchmarks as we scale up.”

     

    Khandelwal added, “In today’s context, online education is becoming more mainstream and acceptable. This is the way our country has to go. UpGrad, within a very short time since its launch, has made waves in the industry with its holistic approach towards education for professionals.I am very excited about working with the dynamic team to help further their vision and to build on their success.”

     

    Prior to joining UpGrad, Khandelwal worked with BlueStone as VP – marketing where he led brand strategy and positioning, creative development, brand activation, customer acquisition and marketing-led innovations.

     

    He also led new product development initiatives and launches during his stint at 3M’s healthcare division and has worked with companies like Mahindra & Mahindra and GlobalLogic.