Educational technology platform for higher education upGrad is now part of the unicorn club as they have raised $185 millions at a valuation of $1.2 billion, it announced on Monday.

Unicorn is a term used in the venture capital industry to describe a privately held startup company with a value of over $1 billion.

Temasek, IFC (International Finance Corporation) and IIFL took part in the funding, said the company i a statement.

Unicorn” is a term used in the venture capital industry to describe a privately held startup company with a value of over $1 billion

“We are very focused on our path to being in the top 3-5 companies globally in edtech and serving the 1 billion workforce across the age group of 10-60 years. We will announce further updates on M&As, and unlocking value as they unfold. Yes, the last value was at $1.2 billion, but as I keep saying, we are not a fan of the tag name unicorn – for us, it is only a means to a much larger goal,” said Ronnie Screwvala, chairperson and co-founder of upGrad.

upGrad is owned by Entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala, Phalgun Kompalli, and Mayank Kumar. It offers job-linked online degrees, certificate course and diplomas in collaboration with top Indian and global universities. The online platform has claimed to have helped over a total of 1 million registered learners in over 50+ countries. 

Last week, the company announced that it has acquired upskilling upskilling platform KnowledgeHut in order to mark its entry into the short-duration course market. This acquisition will allow upGrad to make its presence and offerings for international markets in North America, West Asia, and Southeast Asia. 

In May, upGrad had also acquired Impartus which is a video-learning solutions provider for Rs150 crore. In total, the company has made seven acquisitions and acqui-hires so far. They are competing with other Indian unicorns such as Byju’s and Unacademy.