- Move puts upGrad and EyeWay on the forefront of incorporating mixed reality 
to enhance the learning experiences of upGrad's learners ~

upGrad, South Asia's largest online higher education company, and EyeWay Vision 
today announced their partnership, enabling upGrad to become the first Indian 
edtech company with an enhanced AR-driven learning experience. EyeWay Vision 
Ltd, an Israeli company developing an innovative wearable augmented reality 
platform, will bring one-of-a-kind immersive augmented reality (AR) to upGrad 
learners.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1486982/upGrad_EyeWay_Vision.jpg

The global e-learning market was estimated at US $144 billion in 2019 and is 
forecast to reach US $374.3 billion by 2026, according to market research firm 
Facts and Factors. The market for virtual and augmented reality is forecast to 
reach more than $67 billion globally by 2024, according to AR/VR analyst firm 
Digi-Capital. upGrad has more than one million learners in more than 50 
countries and has recorded an annual revenue run-rate of 165 Million USD for 
fiscal year 2021.

"Partnering with upGrad is the perfect opportunity to apply EyeWay's advanced 
AR technology to enhance the whole learning experience by making it 
unprecedentedly immersive and distraction-free, gamifying online learning for 
high course completion rates. EyeWay's exceptional AR uses eye tracking, direct 
retinal projection and foveated projection to produce a tenfold improvement in 
visual enhancement. This can disrupt multi-billion-dollar markets like 
educational technology where an impeccable visual experience is a key to user 
value," commented Dr. Nikhil Balram, CEO of subsidiary company EyeWay Vision 
Inc. in Silicon Valley, charged with bringing products to market. Dr. Balram is 
a renowned AR/VR expert, former head of display at Google, and adjunct 
professor at Carnegie Mellon University, guest professor at the Indian 
Institute of Technology (IIT) in Gandhinagar, India, and former visiting 
professor at the University of California, Berkeley. 

The Israeli AR pioneer is developing products based on advanced immersive AR 
technology, enabling new forms of immersive entertainment, digital learning, 
e-commerce, and other enterprise applications. Both EyeWay Vision & upGrad 
share a common vision of creating greatly enhanced immersive learning 
experiences that customers can access anytime and anywhere. 

Ronnie Screwvala & Phalgun Kompalli, Co-founders upGrad, said in a joint 
statement, "At upGrad, we believe in bringing the best and the latest 
technology to enhance the learning experience for our learners. The partnership 
with EyeWay Vision is a path-breaking step wherein we look at developing an 
augmented three-dimensional interactive learning environment to keep our 
learners engaged. Not only would this move disrupt the edtech market at large 
but it would also contribute towards our vision of making world-class education 
mainstream."

The EyeWay Vision prototype offers a very high dynamic range, with brightness 
ranging from ultra-bright 20 thousand nits down to a very low black level of 
0.1 nits, allowing it to be used indoors and outdoors in all kinds of lighting. 
It offers an extremely wide color gamut (Rec 2020), retinal resolution, 
naturally wide field of view and dynamic focusing, presenting rich and natural 
digital content that looks completely realistic. The prototype is expected to 
be available towards the fourth quarter of 2021.

Jeremy Bailenson, VR professor at Stanford University, founding director of 
Stanford's Virtual Human Interaction Lab ( https://vhil.stanford.edu/ ), and 
EyeWay Vision advisory board member, explained, "If there is one thing the 
pandemic has taught us, it is that digital learning works and is here to stay. 
The next phase of this virtual revolution will be to leverage more immersive 
technology. While AR has shown promise to be a tremendous tool for learning, it 
hasn't yet taken off due to limitations around field of view, the brightness 
and color range of images, and resolution. Eyeway Vision has created an 
incredible system to overcome these challenges, and there is nothing else like 
it on the market today. I am excited for digital learning to become more 
immersive, and to help Eyeway Vision become a leader in this space."

"Incorporating AR technology into online learning is a compelling application 
that creates an engaging and immersive learning experience for students in 
digital education," commented Anthony Rowe, Siewiorek and Walker Family 
professor of electrical and computer engineering, at Carnegie Mellon 
University. "EyeWay and upGrad's partnership could pave the way for a new 
digital learning experience that could be the future of online learning," he 
continued.

Through this partnership, upGrad will leverage EyeWay's customized system to 
explore the development of AR-enhanced learning experiences and online 
programs. At an advanced stage, EyeWay and upGrad may include university 
partners to join in a pilot program. This move can make upGrad the first Indian 
edtech company and one of the very few globally to incorporate mixed reality to 
enhance the learning experiences of its online learners. EyeWay is currently 
developing an immersive AR head-worn prototype. This prototype will be used to 
enable an immersive AR learning experience that will further be developed by 
upGrad and its content partners.

About upGrad 
upGrad is South Asia's largest online higher edtech company offering 100+ 
courses in collaboration with top-notch global universities like Deakin 
Business School (Australia), Duke CE (US), Michigan State University (US), 
Liverpool Business School (UK), IIT Madras (India), IIM Kozhikode (India) and 
others. The international edtech leader has impacted over 1 million total 
registered learners over 50+ countries across the world. 

upGrad has ranked No.1 in the LinkedIn Top StartupsIndia 2020 list. This is the 
third time in a row that upGrad has been featured in the LinkedIn Top 
Startuplist after 2018 and 2019. It is also amongst GSV Global EdTech 50 and 
and has ranked amongst Top 50 in the FT Asia-Pacific High-Growth Companies 2021 
List.

To know more, visit: www.upgrad.com

About EyeWay Vision

EyeWay Vision develops innovative wearable augmented reality systems that 
provide a truly immersive experience on the go. EyeWay Vision Ltd. was 
established in 2014 in Israel, and has raised US $46 million in funding from 
strategic investors including Samsung Next, Verizon Ventures, Horizons 
Ventures, ICONIQ Capital, and OurCrowd. Eyeway's proprietary technology is 
protected by 17 patents published or pending. To learn more about EyeWay 
Vision, visit http://eyeway-vision.com

SOURCE:   upGrad

CONTACT: Neha Prasad, neha.prasad@upgrad.com, +91-9546938838