Professional networking and jobs platform Apna on Wednesday said it has raised $70 million in Series B round led by Insight Partners and Tiger Global, taking its valuation to $570 million. Existing investors, Sequoia Capital India, Lightspeed India, Greenoaks Capital and Rocketship VC also participated in the round.
Apna said that it will use the proceeds to strengthen its presence in existing cities and expand pan-India over the next six months to help restart India's economy. "Over the last month, Apna has facilitated more than 15 million job interviews and work related conversations where users have helped each other to start a business, find a gig or learn a new skill. We are still in the early stages of solving the problem and are excited to continue on this journey with the backing of our new partners," said Nirmit Parikh, Founder and CEO, Apna.
The team plans to double down on their edtech platform for skilling by continuing to invest in hiring exceptional talent and building world class engineering and product capabilities. Additionally, Apna plans to expand to high potential international markets such as Southeast Asia and the US in the coming year.
Founded in 2019, Apna has over 60 communities for skilled professionals like carpenters, painters, field sales agents and many others. Apna says it has witnessed exceptional growth since its launch - with more than 10 million users and over 100,000 employers relying on Apna to find appropriate job opportunities and talent.
"We believe that our investment will enable Apna to continue their steep growth trajectory, scale up their operations, and improve access to opportunities for India's workforce," said Nikhil Sachdev, Managing Director, Insight Partners. Griffin Schroeder, Partner, Tiger Global added that "Apna's focus on digitising the process of job discovery, application and employer candidate interaction has the potential to revolutionise the hiring process".