apna Turns Unicorn; Secures $100 Mn Series C Funding Led By Tiger Global At $1.1 Bn Valuation The platform plans to expedite product development, hire best in class talent in Engineering and Product and expand to new geographies

Jobs platform and professional network for the rising workforce apna, on Thursday, announced to have secured about $100 million in Series C funding led by Tiger Global. The round also saw participation from Owl Ventures, Insight Partners, Sequoia Capital India, Maverick Ventures, and GSV Ventures.

With this round, apna has attained a total valuation of $1.1 billion, making it a unicorn within 21 months of product launch.

apna aims to go into overdrive to sustainably solve the immense challenge of unemployment, poverty, and upskilling.

"apna has a deep social purpose and is committed to discovery and creation of opportunities to enhance a billion livelihoods, across geographies. With the continued support of our partners, we aim to accelerate our journey of "solving for the world," mentioned Nirmit Parikh, founder, and chief executive officer, apna.

apna's job platform leverages a sophisticated algorithm that matches candidates with employers taking into account their skills, experience and preferences. The app also comprises over 70 communities for skilled professionals like carpenters, painters, telecallers, field sales agents, delivery personnel, and others. apna communities have enabled users to grow their professional networks, upskill through peer learning and find gig opportunities. apna's communities enabled 17 million peer-to-peer professional conversations in the past month.

"Apna's viral adoption is driven by a novel social and interactive approach to connecting employers with job seekers. We expect job seekers in search of meaningful connections and vetted opportunities to drive Apna's continued explosive growth across India – and the world," said Griffin Schroeder, partner, Tiger Global.

In a short period, apna has become the preferred choice of employers to hire the right talent. Several of India's leading companies, such as Zomato, Bharti AXA, Urban Company, BYJU'S, PhonePe, Burger King, Delhivery, Teamlease, and G4S Globalrely on apna to address their most urgent and critical hiring needs. The company has facilitated about 100 million interviews via the app in less than two years.

Partnering with Owl Ventures, the education technology VC, will help bolster apna's global ambitions in the skilling space.

"We believe that apna has the potential to fundamentally shift how companies approach hiring skilled professionals and how these individuals approach networking and upskilling. The apna team is creating an innovative technology-led solution that has already shown tremendous traction by facilitating close to 100 million interviews in approximately two years, and that is just the beginning. By incorporating learning and upskilling offerings to drive strong outcomes for its user communities, apna is building an end-to-end solution that has the potential to help individuals over the course of their career and not just in a single interaction. That repeated interaction and trust they are building on their platform can profoundly impact not just India but the global talent ecosystem," explained Amit Patel, managing director, Owl Ventures.

Throughout the pandemic period, apna has supported business continuity by helping employers connect with and hire interested candidates in their vicinity. The company is committed to continuing to solve employment and skills-related problems for the world. apna has partnered with organizations such as, National Skill Development Corporation, UNICEF Yuwaah, Truecaller, Akzonobel, and the Ministry of Minority Affairs of India, in their endeavor to provide better skilling and job opportunities to candidates.

apna has grown 125-time over the past 15 months and is currently conducting 18 million interviews each month. In the future, the company plans to use the proceeds to further strengthen its presence in the existing 28 cities and expand pan-India by the end of 2021 to help accelerate India's economy. The team plans to double down on their edtech platform for skilling and invest in hiring exceptional talent and building world-class engineering and product capabilities.

apna plans to build a global enterprise by venturing into new markets such as the USA, South East Asia, and the Middle East, and Africa starting in 2022.