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Former Unacademy COO Vivek Sinha raises $11 Mn for his new startup

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Former Unacademy COO Vivek Sinha raises $11 Mn for his new startup
Medial

Vivek Sinha, the former Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Unacademy, has launched his new venture called Beyond Odds Technologies, with an initial investment of $11 million. The seed funding round was led by Matrix Partners India and Lightspeed. InnoVen Capital, a subsidiary of Temasek, and Alteria Capital also joined the round among other angel investors namely Ritesh Agarwal (Founder of OYO), Gaurav Munjal (Founder of Unacademy), Mayank Kumar (Founder of Upgrad), Ramakant Sharma (Founder of Livspace), Abhishek Goyal (Founder of Tracxn), Rohit MA (Founder of CloudNine Hospitals), Sumer Juneja (Managing Partner at SoftBank), Puneet Kumar (Managing Director at Steadview Capital), and Abhinav Sinha (COO of OYO). The Bengaluru-based startup focuses on employability-led training, certification, and recruitment services for the grey-collar workforce segment. It connects employers with talent among students. The company is launching Emversity, a higher education brand, with its first center in Bengaluru on April 20, followed by six more centers in cities like Hyderabad, Delhi, Nagpur, Kochi, and Ranchi by June. These centers will offer bachelor’s degree programs, including nursing, and certification courses in partnership with universities, the company said in a statement. As per the company, Emversity’s first cohort will include programs tailored to meet skill requirements in healthcare, with tie-ups with institutions like Fortis Hospitals and Core Diagnostics for job placements and internships. Vivek Sinha announced his departure from Unacademy in August 2023 after serving for three years. Previously, Sinha was a business head at Oyo between April 2018 to September 2020. His resignation was part of a series of notable exits from Unacademy, including chief marketing officer Karan Shroff, chief of staff Abhyudayay Rana, and chief financial officer Subramanian Ramachandran. Shroff also launched his new startup LightFury Games which recently raised $8.5 million in its Seed round led by Blume Ventures.

Unacademy elevates Arooshi Singh as Head of HR

EntrackrEntrackr · 9m ago
Unacademy elevates Arooshi Singh as Head of HR
Medial

Edtech company Unacademy is undergoing several high-level appointments. In the latest development, Arooshi Singh has been promoted from Director of People Experience and Culture to Chief People Officer at the Bengaluru-based firm. “I’m thrilled to share that Arooshi Singh, who has been with us for over seven incredible years, is being promoted to Head of HR,” said Gaurav Munjal, CEO and co-founder of Unacademy, in a Slack message to employees on Monday, as reviewed by Entrackr. Singh will replace Sandhydeep Purri, who was appointed as Chief People Officer of the SoftBank-backed company in November 2023. Arooshi led multiple functions across HR functions at Unacademy. She joined the company as a junior staff member for employee wellness. This marks the third promotion announced by the Munjal-led company in 2024. In January, Jagnoor Singh was elevated to Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Unacademy Centres, and last month, Abhishek Pipara was promoted to Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for the offline business. In the past year, Unacademy has also seen several senior leadership exits, including a co-founder. In August 2023, Chief Operating Officer Vivek Sinha resigned, followed by Group CFO Subramanian Ramachandran in October, and co-founder and CTO Hemesh Singh in June. Last month, Unacademy also disclosed its financial numbers for the fiscal year ending March 2024. While the company’s revenue remained flat for the said fiscal year with Rs 988 crore, it managed to reduce its losses by a whopping 62%.

Shraeyansh Thakur resigns from Peak XV after a decade

EntrackrEntrackr · 4m ago
Shraeyansh Thakur resigns from Peak XV after a decade
Medial

Shraeyansh Thakur resigns from Peak XV after a decade During his tenure at Peak XV, he was board member and observer for startups like Atlys, Meesho, Cars24, ApnaMart, Unacademy, Zetwerk, Urban Piper, Bijnis, among others. Shraeyansh Thakur, an investor at Peak XV Partners, has resigned after nearly 10 years at the venture capital firm, sources told Entrackr. This marks the fifth high-profile exit from Peak XV in the past year. “Shraeyansh Thakur has decided to quit the firm and is likely to launch his own venture soon,” said one of the sources requesting anonymity. Queries sent to Peak XV and Thakur did not elicit any response until publication of the story. "After an incredible 9+ years at Peak XV / Sequoia India, I have decided to embark on a new entrepreneurial journey. The next 10 years are going to be India’s golden digital decade and our founders now have true belief to create the world’s best companies from India," said Thakur in a Linkedin post. Last month, Peak XV’s managing partners, Shailesh Lakhani and Abheek Anand, stepped down after serving for more than a decade. Prior to that, Anandamoy Roychowdhary, a partner at Peak XV's Surge, departed after over 11 years at the firm, while Piyush Gupta, then Managing Director, left after seven years to launch his secondary-focused fund, Kenro Capital. Meanwhile, Rishen Kapoor, co-founder and CEO of SaaS startup Toplyne, has returned to Peak XV Partners after his three-and-a-half-year-old venture shut down. In October last year, Peak XV reduced its $2.85 billion fund by 16% as part of a strategic shift towards investing in a more measured manner amid elevated valuations in the Indian market. This development came a year after Sequoia Capital rebranded as Peak XV.

LightFury Games raises $8.5 Mn in Seed round led by Blume

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
LightFury Games raises $8.5 Mn in Seed round led by Blume
Medial

Gaming startup LightFury Games has raised $8.5 million in its Seed round led by Blume Ventures. The round also saw participation from Japanese mobile entertainment firm Mixi and micro venture capital firm Gemba Capital, angel investors such as Kunal Shah, Gaurav Munjal. The proceeds will be used to build AAA titles with an initial focus on mobile games and later expand to other platforms, including consoles. AAA games are titles that typically have big budgets for both development and marketing purposes. Floated by former Unacademy and Tencent Games executive Karan Shroff, Tina Balachandran and gaming industry veteran Anurag Banerjee, the startup has also roped in former Improbable and Electronic Arts executive Chong-U Lim as its chief technology officer (CTO) and long-time Improbable executive Daniel Hall as the company’s senior director of engineering. Chief executive Shroff left Unacademy in September 2022 after a three-year stint at the edtech unicorn. Previously, he also served as the head of brand marketing for Xiaomi India for more than four years. Apart from investing in game development, the funds raised will be used to establish game studios in India and in the UK and hire top talent for these studios.

Emversity raises $5 Mn in pre-Series A round led by Lightspeed and Z47

EntrackrEntrackr · 3m ago
Emversity raises $5 Mn in pre-Series A round led by Lightspeed and Z47
Medial

Beyond Odds Technologies, the parent company of skill-training platform Emversity, has raised $5 million in its pre-Series A funding round led by Lightspeed and Z47, with participation from Alteria Capital and Innoven Capital. Vivek Sinha, the former Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Unacademy, launched Beyond Odds Technologies with an initial investment of $11 million in April 2024. The seed funding round was led by Matrix Partners India and Lightspeed. The company now operates across 36 campuses in 18 states. The platform focuses on building a skilled grey-collar workforce in key sectors such as healthcare, travel, and hospitality. It plans to expand to over 75 campuses by the end of the financial year. Under the Emversity School of Allied Health Sciences, students are trained for roles like nurses, paramedics, lab technicians, caregivers, and other healthcare positions. The recently introduced Emversity School of Hospitality has partnered with major hotel chains to provide training in food and beverage service, room operations, and culinary skills. Emversity integrates industry-based training into higher education. Its model includes employer-sponsored stipends and industry-designed curriculum to improve job readiness and accessibility. The company runs two programs – SMART and EDGE – offering vocational and honors degree options in partnership with higher education institutions. Both programs include training, internships, and job placements.

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