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Bengaluru-based professional networking and jobs platform Apna has raised Series B funding of $70 million led by Insight Partners and Tiger Global, at a valuation of $570 million. Existing investors Sequoia Capital India, Lightspeed India, Greenoaks Capital, and Rocketship VC also participated in the round.

The investment will allow Apna to build more new products, hire best-in-class tech talent, and expand to new geographies. A statement shared by the company added that the funding would be used to strengthen its presence in existing cities and expand pan-India over the next six months.

Expansion on the cards

Nirmit Parikh, Founder and CEO, Apna, said, “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.” 

The platform aims to double down on its edtech platform for skilling by continuing to invest in hiring exceptional talent and building world-class engineering and product capabilities.

Apna also plans to expand to high-potential international markets such as Southeast Asia and the US in the coming year.

Nikhil Sachdev, Managing Director, Insight Partners, said, “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, leading to best-in-class customer satisfaction scores. We believe our investment will enable Apna to continue their steep growth trajectory, scale up their operations, and improve access to opportunities for India’s workforce.” 

Access to better jobs

Founded in 2019, Apna follows a tech-driven approach to use the power of communities and enable access to better jobs and entrepreneurship for millions of Apna’s users. It comprises 60+ communities for skilled professionals like carpenters, painters, field sales agents and many others.

Griffin Schroeder, Partner, Tiger Global, said “Apna’s focus on digitising the process of job discovery, application, and employer-candidate interaction has the potential to revolutionise the hiring process. The Apna app also helps workers form professional networks and upskill themselves.”

Apna users get access local job opportunities, network with peers, practise for interviews, share their accomplishments, and gain new skills. The platform has on-boarded more than 10 million users and 100,000+ employers.

Over the past three months Apna has doubled the number of Indian cities in which it is present to 14. This Resolvgrowth has enabled it to catapult from a challenger to the market leader in its category.

Resolving hiring needs

The platform’s data-science led algorithm matches candidates with employers taking into account their skills and experience. This has enabled employers and recruiters to solve for trust, relevancy, and candidate volume.

Several of India’s leading 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. The platform has also partnered with some of India’s leading public and private organisations.

Apna is supporting National Skill DevelopmentCorporation, UNICEF Yuwaah, the Ministry of Minority Affairs of India, in their endeavour to provide better skilling and job opportunities to candidates.