Former Unacademy COO Vivek Sinha Rakes In $11 Mn For His New Edtech Venture

Unacademy’s former chief operating officer Vivek Sinha has floated his new venture Beyond Odds Technologies with a seed funding of $11 Mn (INR 91.8 Cr) co-led by Matrix Partners India and Lightspeed India.

The round also saw participation from a clutch of other investors, including InnoVen Capital, Alteria Capital, Oyo founder Ritesh Agarwal, Unacademy founder Gaurav Munjal, upGrad founder Mayank Kumar, Livspace founder Ramakant Sharma and SoftBank partner Sumer Juneja.

The company also counts Abhishek Goyal (founder, Tracxn), Rohit MA (founder, CloudNine Hospitals), Puneet Kumar (managing director, Steadview Capital) and Abhinav Sinha (COO, OYO) among its backers.

Bengaluru-based Beyond Odds Technologies focuses on developing employability-led training, certification and recruitment services tailored for grey-collar workforce segment.

The training and recruitment platform, designed to tackle the shortage of skilled workforce, serves as a bridge. It connects employers seeking talent with its supply base among students.

The platform also claims to operate higher education brand ‘Emversity’, collaborating with esteemed universities to provide bachelor’s degree programmes in the allied health sciences stream.

The company aims to tackle the shortage of skilled labour in sectors such as healthcare, education, hospitality and construction. It plans to provide training to candidates, maintaining high standards and scalability. 

Sinha said, “Our platform will address the shortages in skilled workforce in both domestic and global markets by creating high-quality supply from India. Our courses also come with ‘built-in income’, so candidates do not have to wait for completion of their formal higher education to earn their first pay cheque.”

For the current academic year, Beyond Odds will exclusively concentrate on the healthcare industry.

“With our long-standing acquaintance with Vivek, we commend his grasp of the issue and capacity to establish pioneering institutions,” said Rajat Agarwal, managing director at Matrix Partners India.

Harsha Kumar, partner at Lightspeed, said, “Beyond Odds recognises and aims to tackle these limitations of the current education system. By enabling vocational skills-based education among students in partnership with public and private partnerships, they’re solving both the demand and supply problems in college education today.” 

Sinha resigned from his position of COO at Unacademy in August .“After three incredible years at Unacademy, I have decided to take the next step in my career. Grateful for the opportunities, friendships, and memories I have gained. Thank you for believing in me and constantly pushing me to operate at (the) peak of my abilities Gaurav Munjal,” said Sinha at the time of his departure.

The edtech unicorn narrowed its consolidated net loss by almost 40% in the financial year ended March 31, 2023. The startup reduced its loss to INR 1,678.1 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23) from INR 2,847.9 Cr in the previous fiscal. 

Besides, the edtech major recently announced its foray into the language learning space, with the launch of its new venture, Unacademy Language Learning App.