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ICS Career GPS, a mobile app which is making online career guidance accessible and affordable for students and young professionals in both English and Hindi, has raised Rs 3 crore ($400,000) in an angel funding round.

The investment, made by Aurangabad-based Bagla Group, will help the app to expand its presence across new markets, including Tier II and III cities. The funding will also be utilised for research and development, expanding its reach, and adding more useful features to the product.

“We have entered this strategic partnership with Bagla Group to exponentially expand our online counselling and take our trusted career guidance services directly to millions of students and professionals, globally,” said career consultant Dr Amrita Dass, Founder-Director ICS. Dr Dass was recently appointed to the UP Government’s taskforce for implementing the new National Education Policy (NEP 2020).

According to a report from MHRD and consultancies such as EY and KPMG, the market size for career counselling in India is estimated at over Rs 5,000 crore. The country has a requirement of 1.4 million career counsellors to maintain the globally accepted student-counsellor ratio. Around 90 percent of Indian schools do not have a dedicated career counsellor, which is a huge deficit. As per reports, most Indian students make career choices on the basis of expected remuneration rather than their career interests and aptitudes – a key reason behind the increasing skilled unemployment.

“ICS is among the pioneers of career counseling with over 35 years of rich experience. The online career counseling space is a huge global market, especially with the rapidly changing career scenarios requiring people to frequently seek guidance. ICS has the vision and the expertise to leverage this opportunity,” added Rishi Bagla, Promoter, Bagla Group.

The English version of the app was launched on August 15, 2020, while the Hindi version was launched on November 28, 2020. Within a few months of its launch, the app claims to have received positive feedback from students, parents, and educators, and has over 50,000 students and professionals on board.