AlmaBetter Secures Funding To Offer More Upskilling Courses To Students

Edtech upskilling startup AlmaBetter has secured $2.7 Mn in its seed funding round, which is an equity round.

The round was led by Kalaari Capital. Besides, Over 15 angel investors and founders of tech companies including Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Kumar from Meesho, Rajesh Yabaji from Blackbuck, Varun Alagh from Mamaearth, and Rahul Dalmia, among others also participated in the investment round.

Founded in 2020 by IIT Kharagpur and IIT Delhi graduates Shivam Dutta, Vikash Srivastava, Ravi Kumar Gupta, Arshyan Ahsan and Alok Anand, AlmaBetter offers upskilling courses in varied domains such as data science, software development and blockchain to college students and working professionals. 

AlmaBetter said that it offers pay-after-placement services to the students enrolled in its courses. 

“India is blessed with immense youth potential but the lack of industry-relevant education is posing serious threats to their employability. This calls for innovative and affordable upskilling platforms which deliver quality learning outcomes at scale,” said Kiran Vasireddy, partner at Kalaari Capital.

AlmaBetter said that it has enrolled more than 16K students to date. It further aims to upskill 60K college students as well as working professionals by March 2023.

The startup claims to have registered over 300K users on its platform and partnered with more than 500 MNCs as well as startups in India.

“We, at AlmaBetter, are laser focussed on solving this by providing tech upskilling platform for the Indian youth. Leveraging AI for personalized learning experiences and minimizing the operational footprint has enabled us to provide quality education and job outcomes,” said Shivam Dutta, CEO and cofounder of AlmaBetter.

The startup plans to expand its product offerings for college students and strengthen existing offerings for college graduates as well as working professionals. It also looks to launch job-oriented courses in product engineering, UI/UX and other allied fields.

The development has come at a time when the Indian edtech segment has been reeling under difficult conditions. At the moment, giants such as BYJU’S, Unacademy and Vedantu are downsizing their businesses, laying off employees and adopting a hybrid business model. 

According to an Inc42 analysis, edtech startups sacked 6,898 employees so far in 2022. Besides, edtech startups viz. Lido Learning, Crejo.Fun, Udayy and SuperLearn have permanently shut their business this year.

On the flip side, Lightrock India-led Scaler Academy, Eight Roads Ventures-led Bhanzu, Antler India-led Peakperformer are some of the edtech startups that have raised capital this year.