Jobs marketplace for blue-collar workforceapna has raised about $100 million in a series C funding round from Tiger Global, reaching a valuation of $1.1 billion.

The round also saw participation from Owl Ventures, Insight Partners, Sequoia Capital India, Maverick Ventures and GSV Ventures. The company plans to use the funding to strengthen its presence in the existing 28 cities and expand pan-India by the end of 2021 to help accelerate India’s economy.

edtech platform

The team plans to double down on itsedtech platform for skilling and will invest in hiring exceptional talent. apna plans to build a global enterprise by venturing into new markets such as the USA, south east Asia, and the Middle East & Africa starting 2022. apna has grown 125x over the past 15 months and is currently conducting 18 million interviews each month.

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Nirmit Parikh, Founder and CEO, apna , said, “apna has a deep social purpose, and is committed to discovery and creation of opportunities to enhance a billion livelihoods, across geographies. With the continued support of our partners, we aim to accelerate our journey of ‘solving for the world’.”

Job matching

apna’s job platform leverages a sophisticated algorithm that matches candidates with employers taking into account their skills, experience and preferences. The app also comprises 70+ communities for skilled professionals like carpenters, painters, telecallers, field sales agents, delivery personnel and others. apna communities have enabled users to grow their professional networks, upskill through peer learning and find gig opportunities. It claims to have enabled 17 million peer to peer professional conversations in the past month.

Several India’s companies, such as Zomato, Bharti AXA, Urban Company, BYJU’S, PhonePe, Burger King, Delhivery, Teamlease and G4S Global rely on apna to for their hiring needs. apna has facilitated about 100 million interviews via the app in less than two years.

End to end solution

Griffin Schroeder, Partner, Tiger Global, said , “Apna’s viral adoption is driven by a novel social and interactive approach to connecting employers with job seekers. We expect job seekers in search of meaningful connections and vetted opportunities to drive Apna’s continued explosive growth across India – and the world.”

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Amit Patel, Managing Director Owl Ventures, said , “By incorporating learning and upskilling offerings to drive strong outcomes for its user communities, apna is building an end-to-end solution that has the potential to help individuals over the course of their career and not just in a single interaction. That repeated interaction and trust they are building on their platform can profoundly impact not just India but the global talent ecosystem.”

apna has partnered with organizations such as National Skill Development Corporation, UNICEF Yuwaah, Truecaller, Akzonobel, and the Ministry of Minority Affairs of India, in their endeavor to provide better skilling and job opportunities to candidates.

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