New Delhi, Dec 15 (IANS): Amid the deepening layoff winter, online higher education platform upGrad may ask a major chunk of its employees -- about one-third or even more -- to go in days to come, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The company, however, denied any upcoming layoff -- large or small.

People, who are directly in the know of the matter, told IANS that the company may let go of hundreds of employees soon.

In a statement to IANS, the Ronnie Screwvala-led company denied any cutbacks over team strengths at "One upGrad".

"We categorically deny any vested interest or rumours about layoffs, large or small," a company spokesperson said, adding that "as we consolidate our M&As, there will always be an ongoing assessment of both -- profile redundancy and performance".

The company spokesperson said that in the last 60 days, it has added "over 2,000 to our team strength and just in the last 2 weeks, we have remained as a net hirer of 200".

"As shared officially last month, we have also entered into additional premises across India of over 100,000 square feet to strengthen our business footprints," the company told IANS.

It also said that between now and March 2023, "One upGrad will add another 500 employees to its team strength across India".

Last month, the edtech major announced that it plans to hire over 1,400 team members by March 2023 to continue its growth and expansion plans to impact learners in India and globally.

In September, the online higher education platform acquired corporate training solutions provider Centum Learning in a share swap deal. The company, however, did not disclose the deal size.

Started in 2015, upGrad has a learner base of over 3 million across more than 100 countries and over 300 university partners and a robust enterprise business with a client base of 1,000 companies worldwide.

In August, upGrad raised $210 million (about Rs 1,670 crore) in a round that saw participation from ETS Global, Bodhi Tree, Kaizen Management Advisors and others.