upGrad acquires recruitment firm Rekrut India

PTI, Dec 16, 2020, 3:07 PM IST

New Delhi: upGrad, an online higher education company, on Tuesday said it has acquired recruitment and staffing solutions company Rekrut India. While the company did not disclose details of the transaction, upGrad said it has acquired 100 per cent stake in Rekrut India.

Given the massive potential of the recruitment sector, which is a Rs 15,000-crore market, upGrad firmly believes an independent business in this sector will provide strong non-linear growth opportunities for the company, it added.

Mumbai-based Rekrut India has a network of over 100 recruiting experts and works closely with many start-ups, MSMEs, and large enterprises.

”Acquisition of Rekrut will turbocharge its career engine by opening up wider placement opportunities and propelling accessibility of upGrad learners to Rekrut’s hiring partners,” a statement said.

upGrad co-founder Ronnie Screwvala said the acquisition of Rekrut is a significant step in making upGrad a career powerhouse for professionals.

”This move is integrally aligned with our company’s vision of powering career success for every member of the global workforce as their trusted lifelong learning partner,” he added.

Rekrut Managing Director Ajay Shah said the upGrad-Rekrut synergy will disrupt the ecosystem and build an end-to-end supply chain of manpower, where Rekrut is the demand partner providing cutting-edge jobs and upGrad will supply the highly skilled, and future-ready talent.

”We will be taking the learners’ pipeline to the relevant industry stakeholders thereby helping them find the right talent with speed, while in parallel offering a wider choice of career transition for upGrad learners,” he added.

Post the acquisition, Rekrut India, a 100 per cent subsidiary of upGrad, will continue to operate independently with Ajay Shah continuing as the Managing Director, the statement said.

Prior to Rekrut, upGrad’s in-house career services team was reaching out to around 100-200 hiring partners in a year and drove over 1,000 career transitions in 2020. With Rekrut’s expertise and core business being driving placements, upGrad is fairly confident to boost its current volume by 10X and drive meaningful career outcomes for learners, at scale, and with speed, the statement said.