Ex-Unacademy COO’s Emversity Secures $5 million to Tackle India’s Workforce Skill Crisis

Beyond Odds Technologies obtained $5 million from investors during its pre-Series A fundraising phase. The funding round received contributions from Z47 (formerly Matrix Partners India) alongside Lightspeed Venture Partners. Alteria Capital and Innoven Capital also joined the investment round.

The funding supports Emversity, an edtech startup founded by Vivek Sinha, former COO of Unacademy. As reported by the Outlook Business, the Bengaluru-based startup plans to expand its presence across India through new campus establishment and introduction of diverse verticals to their skill-based courses.

Addressing India’s Skill-Based Education Gap

Vivek Sinha states that India faces a shortage of skilled workers instead of an employment crisis. “You can’t create skilled healthcare workers through online courses or in just five or six months. The only way to address this shortage is through a robust education pipeline,” he added.

Currently, multiple sectors throughout India face a major deficit of trained professionals. The healthcare sector demands 6.5 million skilled workers, while the current workforce totals 3.5 million. Emversity created a solution to this gap by developing training programs that integrate academic research with hands-on application learning.

At Emversity they combine practical learning experiences with theoretical education to create skilled professionals. These training programs are supported by industry partnerships to ensure practical relevance.

New Verticals to Fuel Rapid Expansion

Since 2023, Emversity has established 36 campuses throughout 18 Indian states, which include Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Kerala, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and West Bengal. The newly obtained capital will enable the company to increase its operations.

Emversity recently launched its School of Hospitality. The company partnered with two significant hotel chains for training programs in food and beverage services, room operations training, and culinary arts. These programs are expected to commence later this year.

The upcoming strategy of Emversity includes releasing verticals into the construction, education, and banking sectors. Over the next five years, the company plans to establish 4-5 new vertical operations in areas where skills are in particularly high demand.

Investor Backing and Emversity’s Growth

Investors have backed Emversity’s mission to deliver skill-based, employment-focused education. Expressing his views, Harsha Kumar, a partner at Lightspeed, said, “Vivek and his team are bridging a systemic gap between education and employment by aligning training infrastructure with real industry demand, creating a more job-ready workforce for critical sectors.”

Chandrasekhar Venugopal, principal at Z47, added that “From the first meeting, Vivek’s insight on fixing the education-employment gap through a job-relevant pedagogy stood out. In under a year, he’s taken Emversity from this insight to national scale, with real outcomes and smart unit economics.”

Emversity has obtained more than $16 million through various funding rounds. The company provides employment-focused education. A system should establish practical training within academic programs to address these three key issues: curriculum problems, staff shortages, and education expense levels.

By increasing its network and starting additional training modules, the company plans to teach students employable skills for high-growth fields. The company is strongly supported by investors. It is pursuing a clear mission aimed at making a substantial impact on India’s educational system and workforce market.