upGrad Acquires Internshala, Meltplan Raises $10M
The Indian startup ecosystem saw notable strategic activity with ed-tech firm upGrad acquiring employability platform Internshala to expand its services. In a separate deal, B2B SaaS provider Meltplan raised $10 million in fresh capital. The deals indicate continued investor interest in digital enablement platforms for skilling and small business operations.
The upGrad-Internshala deal was a 90% stock-swap transaction, valuing the internship platform at approximately ₹100 crore. This acquisition follows upGrad's abandoned talks to acquire Unacademy a month prior due to valuation disagreements, signaling a strategic pivot to integrate a platform with strong organic traffic at the entry-level of the career lifecycle. Internshala brings a massive user base of over 34 million registered students and 450,000 employers to the upGrad ecosystem. Critically for national scaling strategies, over 40% of Internshala's user base resides in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, providing a direct channel to talent and consumer markets beyond the major metros. upGrad's stated goal is to more than double Internshala's current annual revenue of ₹45 crore to over ₹100 crore. While Internshala will continue to operate as an independent brand led by founder Sarvesh Agrawal, the integration aims to create a seamless pipeline from skilling to employment. upGrad plans to invest in product innovation and AI-powered talent matching to transform the platform into a more enterprise-led model, offering pre-skilled candidates directly to companies. In the B2B SaaS space, Meltplan's $10 million seed round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Noa, bringing its total capital raised to $14 million. The startup, founded in 2025 by Kanav Hasija (co-founder of health-tech unicorn Innovaccer) and Tanmaya Kala, is targeting the $14 trillion global construction industry. Meltplan is developing a construction-native AI "planning engine" to optimize pre-construction decisions, a phase often plagued by costly errors and delays. The platform focuses on integrating and analyzing code compliance, cost, scheduling, and materials before work begins, aiming to reduce the downstream volatility and change orders that erode project margins. The company is already piloting its system with major enterprise contractors like DPR Construction in the U.S. and Innovo Group in the UAE.
