Former Unacademy COO Vivek Sinha's Startup Beyond Odds Technologies Raises USD 11 Mn from Matrix Partners India and Lightspeed In the upcoming academic year, the Bengaluru-based startup will focus on offering undergraduate courses in allied health sciences.

Former OYO and Unacademy senior executive Vivek Sinha announced the launch of his new venture called Beyond Odds Technologies with a seed investment of USD 11 million led by Matrix Partners India and Lightspeed.

Other investors participating in the round include InnoVen Capital (a Temasek subsidiary) and Alteria Capital.

The company is also backed by reputed angel investors, including Ritesh Agarwal (Founder, OYO), Gaurav Munjal (Founder, Unacademy), Mayank Kumar (Founder, Upgrad), Ramakant Sharma (Founder, Livspace), Abhishek Goyal (Founder, Tracxn), Rohit MA (Founder, CloudNine Hospitals), Sumer Juneja (Managing Partner, SoftBank), Puneet Kumar (Managing Director, Steadview Capital), and Abhinav Sinha (COO, OYO).

The startup wants to create a platform with an emphasis on hiring, certification, and training for grey-collar jobs.

Founder and CEO Vivek Sinha said, "Our platform will address the shortages of skilled workforce in both domestic and global markets by creating high-quality supply from India. Our first initiative, 'Emversity,' is a higher education brand that helps universities integrate their degrees with industry-relevant skills."

"Our courses also come with 'built-in income', so candidates do not have to wait for completion of their formal higher education to earn their first pay cheque. Other features of these courses include 'work abroad integrated' modules and extensive placement assistance," Sinha added.

Beyond Odds Technologies is a technology-driven employment platform that finds, develops, accredits, and places people in employable grey-collar jobs in sectors such as hospitality, construction, healthcare, and education.

It also runs the higher education brand 'Emversity', which works with the universities to offer bachelor's degree programs in the allied health sciences stream, such as medical laboratory technology, operation theatre technology, emergency medical technology, hospital administration, medical imaging technology, and dialysis technology.

The company intends to open seven centres across Hyderabad, Delhi, Nagpur, Kochi, and Ranchi to address the major scarcity of qualified personnel in this field. This month, the first centre is expected to open in Bengaluru.

Sinha highlighted that in the current academic year, he will be focusing on offering undergraduate courses in allied health sciences.

"Today, India experiences a unique situation where we have an expanding workforce supply but a talent and skills gap across industries. Beyond Odds recognises and aims to tackle these limitations of the current education system. By enabling vocational skills-based education among students in partnership with public and private partnerships, they're solving both the demand and supply problems in college education today," said Harsha Kumar, Partner at Lightspeed.