EdTech major and Asia’s largest higher education company upGrad, recently announced that it has invested INR 30 crore in TuringMinds, its artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) outsourcing and upskilling platform. The company has injected the funding for TuringMinds to double its headcount and expand globally.
With this investment, the team will incubate more than 50 prototypes each year, including products and accelerators, filing 8-10 portals in the next 8 months, according to an official statement.
The EdTech unicorn set up TuringMinds last year to provide services such as AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS) and HR solutions for companies, along with corporate training and upskilling in AI and ML. It allows startups, SMEs and MNCs to develop AI-based products and services via its incubators and accelerators.
Speaking about the company, President of TuringMinds, Prof Anuradha Sharma, said:
TuringMinds specialises in taking an idea, quickly building prototypes and accelerators (Apps), testing them with the industry, and picking the cherries among them. We are seeing tremendous response from industries globally (SMEs to MNCs) for developing world-class products and services in emerging technology areas like AI and ML.
TuringMinds currently operates over 15+ offline facilities in the US, India, Europe, the UK, and the Middle East. Further, its offices in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Detroit are operating with a professional workforce of 250 product engineers and the business aims to double this in the next quarter.
Commenting on the latest development, CEO of uGDX and TuringMinds, Dr Dakshinamurthy V Kolluru, said:
We have always worked with a very strong industry-centric DNA, and we further saw this as an opportunity to leverage the expertise of our talent through TuringMinds. TuringMinds provides a one-of-a-kind opportunity for industry-focused academicians to directly work with corporates and create business-ready products for them.
The latest investment in TuringMinds comes after upGrad invested $40 million (INR 331.14 Cr) in Harappa Education, an online learning institution for Rs 300 crore (US$38 million) in a cash and stock deal in July this year.
Co-founder and Chairperson of upGrad, Ronnie Screwvala, added:
In addition to our LifeLongLearning suite, we are hiring bachelor’s to doctorate holders in large numbers to fuel our mission of developing full-fledged marketable products.
Headquartered in India, TuringMinds is expanding its global footprint with a business goal of incubating and designing 50+ prototypes every year. It has set out a clear target to become the market leader building an ₹800 crore ($100 million) business with strong Intellectual Properties in the next five years.
upGrad, started in 2015, is a pioneer in the online education revolution, focused on powering career success for a global workforce of over 1.3 billion. It is one of the few Integrated LifeLongLearning Tech Companies in the world – spanning the college learner to the working professional from the age group of 18-50 years and across undergrad courses, campus & job-linked programs, studying abroad, short form to executive programs to degrees, masters and doctoral – with a learner base of over 3 million across 100+ countries and over 300 university partners and a robust enterprise business with a client base of 1000 companies worldwide. It has offices in the UK, U.S., Middle East, India, Singapore & Vietnam, and a presence in many more countries.
Last month, upGrad announced a giant step in offline higher education with the launch of its new brand “UGDX”, which stands for upGrad’s massive thrust in emerging digital technologies.
