Jobs platform Apna has become the latest to join the growing roster of Indian unicorns, raising $ 100 million as part of its Series C round led by existing investor Tiger Global Management.
The round, which values Apna at $ 1.1 billion, comes three months after the startup raised $ 70 million in its Series B fundraiser, co-led by Insight Partners and Tiger Global.
The current round nearly doubles the valuation of Apna, which was last valued at $ 570 million in the June fundraiser.
The new round also featured investments from Owl Ventures, Insight Partners, Sequ-oia Capital India, Maverick Ventures and GSV Ventures.
According to Apna founder and CEO Nirmit Parikh, the startup will use the funds to expand its platform across India. The proceeds will also be used for international expansion and to enter the skills enhancement segment for the blue and gray collar workforce. It also plans to increase hiring in all engineering and product functions.
The two-year-old company, founded in June 2019, has also become one of the fastest Indian startups to achieve unicorn status, joining Ola Electric, InMobi’s Glance, the Udaan business-to-business market and Paytm Mall, all startups that achieved a $ 1 billion valuation in approximately two years of initial operations.
“We have registered 125 times growth in our business and facilitated more than 100 million interviews in the last 15 months. In the last month alone, Apna facilitated more than 18 million interviews, and we have been consistently showing strong performance. . employment for the growing workforce is a huge opportunity with nearly 2.3 billion people falling out of the category, “Parikh said.
Today, Apna claims to have more than 16 million users and serves more than 150,000 small and medium-sized business (SMB) employers, as well as businesses. His business clients include Zomato, Bharti AXA, Urban Company, BYJU’S, PhonePe, Burger King, and Delhivery, among others.
It currently has more than 5 million active job vacancies, in 70 segments on its platform and has a presence in 28 cities in India.
With the fundraising, Apna plans to scale its presence to 250 million users, in 300 Indian cities, with more than 1 million employers on its platform, by the end of 2022. Early next year, the company also plans to enter two new international geographies. It is currently targeting the United States, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa for its geographic expansion.
“Apna’s viral adoption is driven by a novel social and interactive approach to connecting employers with job seekers. We hope job seekers looking for meaningful connections and vetted opportunities will drive Apna’s continued explosive growth across the globe. India and the world, “said Griffin Schroeder, partner at Tiger Global.
The company is also betting heavily on the training opportunity and is building a platform to enhance the skills of the blue-collar segment, allowing them to pursue higher-paid livelihoods. Apna will seek partnerships to create offerings for this category, while also creating internal courses, Parikh said.
“We believe Apna has the potential to fundamentally change the way companies approach hiring qualified professionals. By incorporating learning and skills enhancement offerings to drive strong results for its user communities, Apna is building an end-to-end solution. end that has the potential to help people throughout their careers and not just in one single interaction. That repeated interaction and trust they are building on their platform can have a profound impact. “Amit Patel, CEO of Owl Ventures.
Apna is also looking to break into segment white-collar job opportunities, and has IT jobs also listed on its platform in the last three months.
