AngelList Backs Noida-Based Edtech Startup Konfinity

A US-based curated closed marketplace for startups and investors, AngelList, on Wednesday (January 23), announced that it has invested an undisclosed amount of fund in Noida-based edtech startup Konfinity which offers an artificial intelligence (AI) powered platform for software programming courses.

The funding round also witnessed participation from FirstCheque, mCarbon CEO Rajesh Razdan, Jugnoo ClickLabs CEO Samar Singla, founders of healthtech startup Curofy and Amit Kapoor, faculty at Harvard Business School among others.

With this freshly infused capital, Konfinity will expand its services to over 100 colleges across 12 cities in the next six months.

Konfinity was founded by Navratn Singh, along with Kamal Pandey in 2018. The company through its AI-powered platform trains students to become software developers in just six months from the comfort of their home. It also prepares them to get placed in a next-generation tech company without any upfront cost. Currently, it has partnered with over 12 colleges in India and catering to over 2K students.

The company currently offers courses in web development, data science and UI/UX. In the coming days, it is looking to add animation, graphics, IoT and DevOps and others.

Bridging Job-Skill Gap In India 

In a press statement, Singh said, “Over 150 Mn jobs created last year that needed candidates to have coding skills, the IT industry witnessed a slump in terms of hiring the right talent.”

Adding to this, he said that engineering students across the country are still struggling to find the right career. “The recent funding validates our concept to help bolster partnerships with key universities in the coming months,” he added.

Utsav Somani, partner at AngelList said that more than 60% of Indian engineers are unemployed at this moment and most schools and colleges lack coding frameworks as required by new-age tech companies. Somani believes that Konfinity is bridging the gap existing in the industry and is poised to scale the business, sustainably.

In India, the AI in edtech market is still in a nascent stage as educational institutions and colleges are succumbing to outdated syllabus, courses and methods that don’t meet the present-day job market requirement. Noticing the gap, a lot of players, including IBM, Google, and Microsoft, along with edtech startups like Emotix, BYJU’s, Smartivity and Konfinity are changing the education landscape in India.

According to Market Study Report, the AI in edtech market is expected to surpass $6 Bn by 2024. The growth is expected to be fueled by the growing demand for intelligent tutoring system (ITS) by educational institutions and colleges.