Jobs and professional networking platform apna, has secured around $100 million in a series C funding led by Tiger Global. The round also saw participation from Owl Ventures, Insight Partners, Sequoia Capital India, Maverick Ventures and GSV Ventures. With this round, apna has attained a total valuation of $1.1 billion. The company said it aims to go into overdrive to sustainably solve the immense challenge of unemployment, poverty and upskilling.
The company said it has grown 125x over the past 15 months and is currently conducting 18 million interviews each month. In the future, it plans to use the proceeds to further strengthen its presence in 28 cities that it already exists in and expand pan-India by the end of 2021.
The team plans to double down on their edtech platform for skilling and invest in hiring talent and building world class engineering and product capabilities. The company also said it plans to build a global enterprise by venturing into new markets such as the USA, South East Asia, and Middle East & Africa starting in 2022.
Nirmit Parikh, Founder and CEO, apna, said, “apna has a deep social purpose, and is committed to discovery and creation of opportunities to enhance a billion livelihoods, across geographies. With the continued support of our partners, we aim to accelerate our journey of ‘solving for the world’.”
The company further said its job platform leverages a sophisticated algorithm that matches candidates with employers taking into account their skills, experience and preferences.
“Several of India’s leading companies, such as Zomato, Bharti AXA, Urban Company, BYJU’S, PhonePe, Burger King, Delhivery, Teamlease and G4S Global rely on apna to address their most urgent and critical hiring needs. apna has facilitated about 100 million interviews via the app in less than two years,” the company said in a statement.