Mumbai, Sep 28 (IANS): In a move to strengthen its base into the international markets, edtech startup upGrad on Monday said it has appointed Saranjit Sangar as the CEO for UK, Europe, and Middle East.

Sangar will assume her new role from October 1 and will be based out of London, upGrad said in a statement.

"upGrad's international expansion is a multi-pronged strategy," Ronnie Screwvala, Co-Founder & Chairman, upGrad, said in a statement.

"While last year we saw good traction for our existing programmes from the large 40 million South Asian diaspora, we are now focused on leveraging our global tech platform, our strong wireframe model of deep learning, high-touch counselling in the digital world to replicate our success in these very large and interesting markets."

As the first appointed international CEO of the company, Sangar will be driving the edtech major's $1 billion revenue goal from these markets in the next four-five years.

"At upGrad, we will now be providing immersive learning experience with real-life work simulations, mentors and counselors who are industry experts and career services -- matching the skills-sets of our students, and helping them achieve meaningful outcomes," Sangar said.

Screwvala said that in line with its growth agenda to establish upGrad as the global leader in the lifelong learning space, it will be setting up its subsidiaries in the international markets.

"We will soon announce the appointment of our CEO – APAC (Asia Pacific)," he added.

She has a diverse international career across e-commerce (Amazon, UK), last-mile logistics (Amazon, UK, and Honestbee, Singapore), cloud kitchens (Grab, Singapore) and FMCG (Godrej, India).

In her most recent role as Director, Grab Ventures and New Businesses at Grab, she has been instrumental in building the company's Cloud kitchens in Thailand, Singapore from the ground up.