MyCaptain Bags Funding To Offer More Professional Courses, Build Regional Sales Centres

Edtech startup MyCaptain has raised INR 14 Cr (around $1.6 Mn) in an undisclosed funding round from a clutch of investors, including Inflection Point Ventures, MyNavi, Piper Serica, Super Capital and Ankur Capital among others.

The startup plans to use the fresh capital to expand into newer cities, setting up regional sales centres and rolling out additional courses.

Founded by Mohammed Zeeshan, Sameer Ramesh and Ruhan Naqash in 2016, MyCaptain is a platform that enables to choose new career options across content, design, visual arts, finance and business, and help develop practical skills.

The company claims to surpass 20,000 enrollments across courses and aims to hit a revenue of INR 31 Cr in FY24. 

“With this fresh round of funding, we continue our focus on building out a full-stack career platform for your early career journey. Our platform has courses designed for career discovery and exploration as well as job-focused bootcamps being run in classroom centres and online,” said Zeeshan.

“There is an urgent need for individuals proficient in web design, social media management, content writing & digital marketing strategies, yet these courses are far from being integrated into mainstream education. MyCaptain addresses the gap by offering courses like business analytics course, digital marketing and more to ensure students are well-prepared for the evolving professional landscape,” said Mitesh Shah, cofounder of Inflection Point Ventures. 

In 2022, MyCaptain had raised $3 Mn in its seed funding round.

This comes at a time when the Indian edtech space is wading through some of the most uncertain times right now. 

This uncertainty is majorly due to the diminishing interest of investors in this space, which is largely the result of the reopening of schools and colleges after the Covid-19 pandemic. Not to mention, weak governance guardrails, hefty cash burns, and mounting losses by many, too, impacted investors’ sentiment for this once-flourishing space. 

Meanwhile, edtech platform BYJU’S and its promoters are at war with investors, which has resulted in both sides moving to different courts. Some of BYJU’S investors held an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) last week and passed seven resolutions, including those calling for reconstitution of the board and the ouster of Raveendran and his family members – wife Divya Gokulnath and brother Riju Raveendran – from their management roles at the startup.

However, Byju Raveendran got a temporary relief from the Bengaluru High Court a day before the EGM. The HC, in an interim order, said that any decisions taken by shareholders at the EGM will not come into effect till the next hearing in the case on March 13.

Another edtech unicorn, Physics Wallah, claimed to have onboarded more than 1.5 Mn users on its indigenously-built AI education suite, Alakh AI, within less than two months of its launch.

According to Inc42’s Indian Tech Startup Funding Report 2023, the Indian edtech startups could only secure a mere $283 Mn in 2023 compared to $2.4 Bn in 2022, registering a massive 88% year-on-year (YoY) decline. 

In another Inc42’s report, India’s e-learning sector is expected to reach $29 Bn market by 2030. Moreover, the global knowledge-sharing and e-learning market was valued to be close to $400 Bn in 2023 and is expected to grow at 14% CAGR by 2032.