The Series B funding took the company’s total valuation at $570 million
Apna, India’s largest homegrown professional networking and jobs platform, has grown 50X in the last 12 months, with more than 10 million candidates and 100,000+ employers currently relying on the platform
The investment will allow Apna to build more new products, hire best in class tech talent & expand to new geographies
Mumbai, NFAPost: Apna, the market-leading professional networking and jobs platform for India’s rising working class, has raised a $70 million Series B round led by Insight Partners and Tiger Global.
Existing investors, Sequoia Capital India, Lightspeed India, Greenoaks Capital and Rocketship VC have also participated in the round.
The investment amounts to an endorsement of Apna’s undisputed market leadership and stellar business growth. With this investment Apna has now raised over $90 million and is now valued at $570 million, within 16 months of product launch.
Apna will use the proceeds to strengthen its presence in existing cities and expand pan-India over the next 6 months to help restart India’s economy as it recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The team plans to double down on their edtech platform for skilling by continuing to invest in hiring exceptional talent and building world class engineering and product capabilities. Additionally, Apna plans to expand to high potential international markets such as Southeast Asia and the United States in the coming year.
Commenting on the funding, Apna Founder & CEO Nirmit Parikh said Apna is 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.” Nirmit Parikh.
Founded in 2019, Apna is on a mission to connect people to opportunities. It’s tech-driven approach to harness the power of communities has enabled access to better jobs and entrepreneurship for millions of Apna’s users. This has been especially crucial in a pandemic year that has seen severe disruption to the labour markets due to intermittent lockdowns.
Networking on Apna changed the life trajectory of Shivam Singh, an aspiring graphic designer from a small Indian town who lost his job during the pandemic. He found expert guidance and customers on the Apna app to build a successful business. Today he serves as an inspiration to countless aspiring entrepreneurs and designers. Millions of such lives are transformed every month by Apna, as it focuses on delivering a double bottom line.
Today, the app comprises over 60 communities for skilled professionals like carpenters, painters, field sales agents and many others. The app allows users to access local job opportunities, network with peers, practice for interviews, share their accomplishments, and gain new skills.
In the short span of a year, Apna has become the app of choice for Indian professionals. Apna has witnessed exceptional growth since its launch – with 10 million+ users and 100,000+ employers, relying on Apna to find appropriate job opportunities and talent respectively.
Over the past three months Apna has doubled the number of Indian cities in which it is present to 14. This growth has enabled Apna to catapult from a challenger to the market leader in its category. It has also attracted top global and local talent from firms like Uber, BCG & Swiggy.
Insight Partners Managing Director Nikhil Sachdev said the company is 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 which is leading to best in class customer satisfaction scores,” said Nikhil Sachdev.
He said the investment will enable Apna to continue their steep growth trajectory, scale up their operations, and improve access to opportunities for India’s workforce.
Apna’s product-led approach to a globally relevant problem makes it infinitely scalable. Griffin Schroeder, Partner, Tiger Global said “Apna’s focus on digitizing the process of job discovery, application and employer candidate interaction has the potential to revolutionize the hiring process.
The Apna app also helps workers form professional networks and upskill themselves. We are excited to partner with the team as they expand to new markets in India and abroad.”
Apna’s sophisticated 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.
In addition, Apna has partnered with some of India’s leading public and private organizations. Apna is supporting National Skill Development Corporation, UNICEF Yuwaah, the Ministry of Minority Affairs of India, in their endeavor to provide better skilling and job opportunities to candidates.
Founded in 2019, the Apna.co is India’s largest professional networking platform dedicated to helping India’s burgeoning working class to unlock unique professional networking, and skilling opportunities. The app is currently live in 14 cities – Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Ranchi, Kolkata, Surat, Lucknow, Kanpur, Ludhiana, and Chandigarh.
Having raised $90+ million from marquee investors like Insight Partners, Tiger Global, Lightspeed India, Sequoia Capital India, Rocketship.vc and Greenoaks Capital, Apna is on a mission to enable livelihoods for billions in India. With over 10 million users, present in 14 cities and counting, and over 100,000 employers that trust the platform – India has a new destination to discover relevant opportunities.
Insight Partners
Insight Partners is a leading global venture capital and private equity firm investing in high-growth technology and software ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. Founded in 1995, Insight Partners has invested in more than 400 companies worldwide and has raised through a series of funds more than $30 billion in capital commitments. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with practical, hands-on software expertise to foster long-term success. Across its people and its portfolio, Insight encourages a culture around a belief that ScaleUp companies and growth create opportunity for all. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on Twitter @insightpartners.
Tiger Global Management:
Tiger Global Management, LLC is an investment firm that deploys capital globally. The firm’s fundamentally oriented investments focus primarily on the global internet, software, financial technology, consumer and industrial sectors. The private equity strategy has a ten-year investment horizon and targets growth-oriented private companies. Such investments have included Spotify, Harry’s, Warby Parker, Peloton, JD.com, Facebook, LinkedIn, Yandex, Mail.ru Group, Despegar, Ola and Flipkart. The public equity efforts emphasize deep due diligence on individual companies and long-term secular themes. Tiger Global was founded in 2001 and is based in New York with affiliate offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangalore and Melbourne.
