Apna Raises $70 Mn In Series B Funding From Insight Partners And Tiger Global at $570 Mn Valuation The investment will allow Apna to build more new products, hire best in class tech talent and expand to new geographies
By Prabhjeet Bhatla •
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Market-leading professional networking and jobs platform for India's rising working-class Apna on Wednesday informed to have raised a $70 million Series B round led by Insight Partners and Tiger Global. Existing investors, Sequoia Capital India, Lightspeed India, Greenoaks Capital, and Rocketship VC have also participated in the round. The investment amounts to an endorsement of Apna's undisputed market leadership and stellar business growth. With this investment, Apna has now raised over $90 million and is now valued at $570 million, within 16 months of product launch.
Apna will use the proceeds to strengthen its presence in existing cities and expand pan-India over the next 6 months to help restart India's economy as it recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. 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 United States in the coming year.
"At Apna we are determined to take a fresh approach towards solving employment and skilling challenges for billions. Over the last month itself, 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 chief executive officer, Apna.
Founded in 2019, Apna is on a mission to connect people to opportunities. Its tech-driven approach to harness the power of communities has enabled access to better jobs and entrepreneurship for millions of Apna's users. This has been especially crucial in a pandemic year that has seen severe disruption to the labor markets due to intermittent lockdowns.
"We have been incredibly impressed with Apna's stellar growth over the last year. They have built the market-leading platform for India's workforce to establish digital professional identity, network, access skills training, and find high-quality jobs. Employers are engaging with Apna at a rapid pace to help find high-quality talent with low friction which is leading to best-in-class customer satisfaction scores. 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," stated Nikhil Sachdev, managing director, Insight Partners.
Today, the app comprises over 60 communities for skilled professionals like carpenters, painters, field sales agents, and many others. The app allows users to access local job opportunities, network with peers, practice for interviews, share their accomplishments and gain new skills.
In the short span of a year, Apna has become the app of choice for Indian professionals. Apna has witnessed exceptional growth since its launch - with over 10 million users and more than 100,000 employers, relying on Apna to find appropriate job opportunities and talent respectively. It has also attracted global and local talent from firms like Uber, BCG, and Swiggy.
Apna's product-led approach to a globally relevant problem makes it infinitely scalable.
"Apna's focus on digitizing the process of job discovery, application, and employer candidate interaction has the potential to revolutionize the hiring process. The Apna app also helps workers form professional networks and upskill themselves. We are excited to partner with the team as they expand to new markets in India and abroad," added Griffin Schroeder, partner, Tiger Global.
Several companies, such as Zomato, Burger King, Bharti-AXA, Delhivery, Teamlease, G4S Global, Shadowfax, and 1MG rely on Apna to address their most urgent and critical hiring needs. In addition, Apna has partnered with some of India's leading public and private organizations. Apna is supporting the National Skill Development Corporation, UNICEF Yuwaah, and the Ministry of Minority Affairs of India, in their endeavor to provide better skilling and job opportunities to candidates.
