Mumbai: Homegrown higher edtech major upGrad announced on Monday that it will offer ‘online courses worth Rs 1.5 crore’ to the entrepreneurs pitching on Sony’s new reality show – ‘Shark Tank India’.

The show which premiered on Monday night will have aspiring entrepreneurs from across the country pitch their business models to a panel of investors and persuade them to invest money in their idea. upGrad is also the presenting sponsor for the show.

“At upGrad, we stand for job seekers as well as job creators. The entrepreneurs on ‘Shark Tank India’ today, can potentially create thousands of jobs in Bharat tomorrow. Assessing their business pitch and identifying possible lacunae, we are offering them need-based courses. This is our crusade to empower the entrepreneurial community - the job creators of tomorrow, to upscale their businesses,” said upGrad CEO - India Arjun Mohan.

Throughout the first season of ‘Shark Tank India’, the edtech major will be awarding programs on a need-gap basis, across domains including Product Management, Masters of Business Administration, Supply Chain Management, Data Science, Digital Marketing, Business Analytics, and Operations & Finance to the ‘pitchers’.

According to upGrad, the Indian chapter of the ‘Shark Tank’ serves as the perfect platform for the it to showcase to its audience the significance of upskilling and lifelong learning. "With an audience mostly comprising working professionals seeking to positively pivot their careers or nurturing their entrepreneurial zeal, this association will go a long way in improving upGrad’s deep India penetration plans and building an ecosystem of a skilled workforce,” the brand said in a statement,