upGrad appoints former Whitehat Jr exec Ankur Nyati as president of study abroad segment

Edtech firm upGrad has appointed Ankur Nyati as the president of its study abroad segment, replacing Ankur Dhawan who served the position for more than three years.

Nyati comes with more than two decades of experience in the education and retail fields, having held leadership positions at Unilever, ITC, Flipkart, and Ola, among others. Nyati was the chief operating officer at BYJU’S-owned Whitehat Jr for over two years, from 2020.

Dhawan—who led upGrad’s study abroad programme as the president—will transition to a new role, the Temasek-backed edtech company said in a statement, without revealing details.

Moneycontrol was the first to report the development.

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In the new role, Nyati will lead the study abroad operations and leverage his expertise to enhance upGrad’s standing in India and overseas markets and build the largest suite of study abroad offerings, said the startup.

Nyati’s experience in driving initiatives at a global scale as the head of operations at Ola UK will add value to upGrad’s growth, it noted.

“I have followed the education ecosystem very closely over the years and what upGrad has been solving for is commendable. It resonates with India’s efforts of building a wider talent matrix/powerhouse for global opportunities. I am thrilled to get on to the bandwagon and help the brand build a stronger global network for a million aspirants coming out of Indian markets,” said Nyati.

“In the last three years, building a product from scratch has been like a dream come true, and I now feel it's time for me to move on to leverage my skills and capabilities for planting newer growth seeds within the overall matrix of upGrad,” Dhawan said, adding that upGrad is in an exciting period of growth that requires smarter and more innovative business experiments.

Earlier this week, the Ronnie Screwvala-backed firm said it plans to open 100 offline connect and counselling touchpoints and learning centres throughout India, with an initial investment of Rs 100 crore.

In FY23, upGrad earned a gross revenue of Rs 1,530 crore while year-over-year losses surged to Rs 1,142 crore.