
Mayank Kumar is the managing director at upGrad. Mayank did his Bachelor’s from IIT Delhi and an MBA from the Indian School of Business.
Mayank Kumar Early Career
Mayank was the VP of Education at Bertelsmann which is Europe’s largest media and education business. He was looking after operations of the education strategy and their multi-million dollar investments in India. Later he became a Board Member of iNurture which is India’s number one provider of industry-specific academic programs.
Mayank Kumar received the BWDISRUPT 40-under-40 Achiever of the Year Award’17 by BW Businessworld. He was a Senior Principal at The Parthenon Group where he used to advise clients in the education sector on market potential, growth and market entry strategies, investment decisions, revenue & profit uplift strategies.
He worked with clients from China, South-East Asia, Middle East India, and South America. He also worked for the Tata Strategic Group in advising them of strategic direction.
Mayank Kumar at UpGrad
Mayank looks at the overall growth, strategic partnerships and team building at upGrad. He was working in the education field as an investor and an advisor for more than 10 years.
UpGrad was launched with a vision to help existing professionals gain more specializations and stay industry-relevant, especially when technologies are getting outdated at an overwhelming pace.
UpGrad Expansion
upGrad designs online specialization programs by top entrepreneurs for professionals of various fields. UpGrad was launched in 2015 and grew very fast as an online education platform for quality content, student handholding & an engaging learning environment for the Indian market. upGrad, have around 2,000 employees.
upGrad had a vision to educate only working professionals in their careers. Initially, investors were not ready to invest in this model were no online courses were available for schools and college students. So the 3 co-founders only invested the majority of funds.
In February 2021, the company raised around $100 million. Temasek invested $50 million, and International Finance Corporation (IFC) invested around $45 million. upGrad’s valuation crossed $1.2 billion and made it the third unicorn in the Edtech space
UpGrad also has a partnership with Cambridge University, London and plans to expand in the global market.