Expertrons Raises $2.3 Mn Pre-Series A Round The funds will also be invested in their patent pending videobot technology and recommendation engine to help aspirants find the right experts suitable to land them a dream opportunity
By Prabhjeet Bhatla •
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Mumbai-based professional growth-focussed AI videobot startup, Expertrons recently announced that it has raised $2.3 million in pre-Series A funding from Venture Catalysts, Auxano Capital, Venture Garage, Yoga Capital, Ah!Ventures, Leads Angels & Hyderabad Angels. Existing investors LetsVenture, Ivycap Ventures, IVS & Nikhil Vora (Sixth Sense) participated in the round as well. The round also saw participation from marquee entrepreneurs like Mr. Bre Pettis, co-founder, MakerBot (which was backed by Jeff Bezos and got acquired for half a billion dollars), and founder of Early Salary.
Expertrons had earlier raised its seed round of $700,000 in April 2020.
"With the ever increasing digital adoption over the last one year, Expertrons' state-of-the-art Videobots help aspirants manage their career transition seamlessly. We are thrilled to be partnering with this team, building solutions for the future," shared Sunitha Ramaswamy, president, early stage, LetsVenture.
Globally over a billion professionals look to switch their careers at least 5 to 7 times in their lifetime, and Expertrons aims to help them land their dream career through its expert and company network. In India alone, there are over 35 million aspirants in colleges and universities looking for a dream job, internship or B-school and over 80 million white collar professionals with less than three years of experience looking for career growth.
"We live in a world of personalization - where what we want to buy, eat or watch is recommended to us by our apps. Expertrons, being the Netflix for careers, recommend you the experts who are from a similar background and have already achieved your aspiring goals - who can handhold you to achieve the same," commented Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, managing director, Venture Catalyst.
"This team has seen supersonic growth since we last invested. Expertrons uses AI videobot technology for career guidance at a very large scale, a space that is more than ready for disruption," noted Vikram Gupta, founder and managing partner, IvyCap.
Currently, Expertrons has over 5,000 experts sharing their videobot career experiences to land an opportunity with BCG, Google, Facebook, TCS, IIM, ISB, HBS and many more. Professionals have spent over 100 million minutes on Expertrons.
Within 14 months of incorporation, Expertrons reached operational profitability besides inspiring over 250,000 aspirants from their platform.
Part of the fundraise will also be invested in their patent pending videobot technology and recommendation engine to help aspirants find the right experts suitable to land them a dream opportunity.
"Professionals don't want to click on "connect' - and wait or hope for someone to help them, or write an email - and still wait for the right guidance. Neither do they want to read an anonymous career experience on Glassdoor which may be from a different geography and not relevant to them. Videobots are the solution to the ever-growing digital dependence of the world and have applications in virtually every area of business. The demand is evident; we've been growing 50 per cent m-o-m," said Jatin Solanki and Vivek Gupta, co-founders, Expertrons, in a collective statement.
Expertrons also has over 2,000 partner companies to whom they provide pre-trained, ready to join candidates, at no hiring cost. For its more than 100 college partners, Expertrons acts as a virtual alumni/placement cell, with their experts and company network. Through its premium offering Expertrons has placed candidates who are not only from tier-II colleges or cities but even alumni of premier institutes like JBIMS, IITs, and more. Close to 40 per cent of their paid users are people looking for a switch.
"For us we keep looking for that 1 in 1000 team which is thinking and executing non-linear market capture and growth. We saw the team deliver on this. One of the most exciting startups we have come across," added Vivek Kumar, chief executive officer, VentureGarage.
The lifelong learning and executive education space has started seeing more than ever unicorns in India with Unacademy, Upgrad and Eruditus joining the club recently. Expertrons lie right in the middle of social networks (like Bytedance, Linkedin or Facebook), job portals (like Indeed, Monster or Naukri) and e-learning platforms (like Coursera, Udemy or Chegg). Given the fact that the pandemic has brought plenty of momentum for edtech adoption in India, the market size of edtech in India is estimated to grow 3.7-time in the next five years, from $2.8 billion (2020) to $10.4 billion (2025).
