upGrad appoints Mukesh Mundra as CFO. Asia’s leading integrated skilling and higher education company upGrad has announced that its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is Mukesh Mundra. Mukesh Mundra joins the company from the company’s corporate headquarters in Mumbai at a pivotal moment when the company is making aggressive moves on the international markets.
He succeeds Venkatesh Tarakkad as financial head, and spent almost 2 years managing finance for the group.
Directing the Financial Strategy for Global Expansion
As part of the new responsibility at the edtech giant, Mukesh Mundra will oversee upGrad’s comprehensive finance and administrative operations, with responsibility for financial planning, business collaboration, corporate governance, and supporting the company’s expansion efforts. The company has set an ambitious agenda for the new head, with a focus on fostering sustainable long-term growth and expanding market operations around the world.
His principal duties will be to:
✦ Financial Planning: Creating robust, resilient and scalable financial frameworks to facilitate rapid business transformation.
✦ Business Collaboration: Effective interaction with business units to maximize the use of capital resources and efficiency in operations.
✦ Corporate Governance: Improving governance, compliance and risk management in the company to in alignment with those of global institutional governance.
✦ Expansion Efforts: Leading financial plans and actively driving expansion locally and internationally.
An Elite Corporate Blueprint: 26 Years of Leadership
Mukesh Mundra joins the C-suite with a wealth of more than 26 years of expert corporate finance experiences. A dual professional, he is a Chartered Accountant (CA) as well as a Certified Financial Analyst (CFA). Over the course of his distinguished career, he has overseen complex financial portfolios in some of the most competitive of industries—such as media, telecom, manufacturing and consumer-oriented businesses.
Prior to his joining, he was the Head of Finance at JioStar. Before that, he served as CFO for more than eight years at Viacom18 Media Private Limited, leading and shaping big finance strategies and successful corporate restructuring projects.
Previously in his career, he served as foundational leadership roles at Idea Cellular, where he made a significant contribution to some key strategic achievements. These included the purchase of Spice Communications and the formation of the market-defining joint venture with Indus Towers. His wealth of experience in the financial sector also came from holding key roles at large companies such as Grasim Industries and the Anand Rathi Group.
Leadership Perspectives on the New Appointment
In a statement about his stumble into the edtech arena, Mukesh Mundra said he is “quite enthusiastic” about “moldability” of the future of workforce development:
I’m thrilled to be at a stage of “upGrad’s growth that it’s poised to significantly impact the future of lifelong learning and workforce development, building financially resilient and scalable systems, supporting innovation and business transformation – what an exciting opportunity to be a part of this! I hope to join and strengthen “upGrad’s” operational excellence with the leadership team and continue to support this growth in a scalable manner, driven by sustainable revenue streams, at the global level.”
Once he joins upGrad, Ronnie Screwvala, Co-founder and Chairperson, pointed out that his extensive financial knowledge will be a key driver of the firm’s mission.
“Mukesh’s rich background in understanding business transformation through finance, governance, and financial expertise in large-scale consumer businesses is a significant addition to upGrad’s leadership team as we continue to expand our operations around the world and reinforce our long-term growth plan.”
Steering the Unacademy Acquisition and Beyond
The appointment of Mukesh Mundra comes at a crucial juncture for India’s edtech sector. upGrad is now progressing its rumored deal to buy competitor Unacademy, which is in the later stages of regulatory approval. The two companies have filed their applications with the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in recent times.
The deal is heavily reported to be a “full share swap” reflective of upGrad‘s strategy to ensure consolidation, creating highly optimized and financially sustainable skilling ecosystem. As Mukesh Mundra steers the financial ship, the company is making it abundantly clear it is making a move to become institutionally resilient, effective with some serious balancing of its vast growth and robust roadmap for its global lifelong learning network.
