EdTech Platform QwikSkills Raises INR 3.85 Cr Led By IAN QwikSkills aims to utilize the freshly infused capital to expand its footprint in B2B enterprises and B2B2C segment with universities and colleges
By Soumya Duggal •
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Gurugram-based cloud certification and skilling platform QwikSkills has raised a seed funding of INR 3.85 crore. The round was led by Indian Angel Network (IAN), specifically, Manish Sinha and Naveen Gupta, along with other investors.
"With this investment, we are looking to enhance our current offerings and expand into the enterprise and B2B corporate model. We currently have hands-on cloud labs for AWS, Azure and GCP. Moving forward, we'll be expanding our offerings into VMWare, Salesforce, Alibaba, Huawei, IBM and OpenStack for hands-on skilling," said Varun Mahajan, co-founder, QwikSkills.
The startup also aims to expand its operations in India and the global markets of Europe, the US, Asia-Pacific and southeast Asia, said a statement.
The Indian edtech industry was valued at $750 million (INR 5,828 crore) in 2020 and is expected to reach $4 billion (INR 31,082 crore) by 2025 at a compound annual growth rate of 39.77 per cent. Today, India has approximately 100 Unicorns and six of them, including Byju's, are edtechs. Yet, funding is declining in the edtech space due to the return of offline teaching with the end of the pandemic-induced lockdowns. This signifies the importance of IAN's latest investment in QwikSkills.
IAN is an angel network with close to 500 members across the world, with investors from 12 countries and presence spanning seven locations, including cities in India and the UK. The network is sector-agnostic and has funded startups across 19 sectors in India and seven other countries, growing global footprint companies, claims IAN.
"QwikSkills fills a big void in enterprises by providing current and future employees with hands-on practical cloud experience and certifications, thus preparing them for a bright future on the cloud. The QwikSkills platform is also building a global community of professionals who can learn from each other and help each other. Enterprises will be able to harness the power of the community of experts for developing cloud-native business platforms," said Sinha of IAN.
Founded in 2020, QwikSkills is a subscription-based practice platform offering monthly and annual packages for users to practice cloud computing for meeting the tech industry's challenges. The startup offers customized practice solutions for students and tech professionals to get hands-on cloud skills, enabling them to grow their overall technical skills.
According to QwikSkills, the platform has helped 11,000 plus users in quickly growing their tech skills with cloud-based technologies. It now aims to reach 50,000 users, along with forming major B2B associations.
