Unacademy’s former Chief Operating Officer (COO) Vivek Sinha has launched his new venture, Beyond Odds Technologies, with an initial investment of $11 million. The funding round was led by Matrix Partners India and Lightspeed, and later saw participation from InnoVen Capital and Alteria Capital. Apart from it, some other people, including Ritesh Agarwal, Founder, Oyo; Gaurav Munjal, Founder, Unacademy; Mayank Kumar, Founder, upGrad; Ramakant Sharma, Founder, Livspace; and Sumer Juneja, Partner, SoftBank, also participated in the funding round.
The firm’s other supporters are Abhishek Goyal, Founder, Tracxn; Rohit MA, Founder, CloudNine Hospitals; Puneet Kumar, Managing Director, Steadview Capital; and Abhinav Sinha, COO, OYO.
Based in Bengaluru, Beyond Odds Technologies focusses on developing employability-led training, certification and recruitment services tailored for the grey-collar workforce segment. The approach, designed to address the shortage of skilled workforce, acts as a bridge, connecting employers in need of talent with a supply base of students.
Beyond Odds Technologies operates the higher education brand ‘Emversity’. It plans to expand with six more centres in cities like Hyderabad, Delhi, Nagpur, Kochi and Ranchi. These centres will offer bachelor’s degree programmes and certification courses in partnership with esteemed universities. The move aims to address the shortage of skilled labour in sectors such as healthcare, education, hospitality and construction.