Udacity appoints ex-Paytm executive Ishan Gupta as India MD

Former Paytm executive Ishan Gupta has joined US-based online education provider Udacity as its managing director for the Indian market, Gupta's LinkedIn profile shows.

Gupta was previously working with Paytm as vice president of the business division and led the merchant lifecycle management team, where he was responsible for the revenue growth of long tail merchants.

Prior to Paytm, Gupta founded education marketplace EduKart along with Mayank Gupta (not related) which was acqui-hired by Paytm in September 2016.

"My stint as an entrepreneur at EduKart built my understanding of the education sector, while my role at Paytm provided me insights into building a technology-led business at massive scale. Now, at Udacity India, I am excited to apply all these learnings to build a strong team and launch more India-focused courses," Gupta was quoted as saying in The Economic Times, which first reported the development on Wednesday.

Gupta holds a management degree from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and an engineering degree from NSIT, New Delhi.

Udacity provides specialised software training and vocational courses through its nanodegree programmes. It works with a host of tech companies including Google, Cisco and Facebook to develop courses. Once the students receive the nanodegrees, the startup offers them further introductions and guidance to interview for jobs with the leading technology companies.

In November 2015, the startup had raised $105 million (around Rs 695.1 crore) in a Series D round of funding that valued the startup at $1 billion. The round was led by German media group Bertelsmann, with participation from existing investors, Andreessen Horowitz, Charles River Ventures and Drive Capital. Scotland's investment firm Baillie Gifford, Emerson Collective – a charity run by Steve Jobs' widow Laurene Powell Jobs – and Google Ventures joined as new investors.