India’s Apna achieves unicorn status following USD 100 million funding

Apna, an Indian professional networking platform has reportedly secured USD 100 million in a funding round led by its existing investor Tiger Global Management, at a valuation of USD 1.1 billion.

This makes it one of the fastest startups to achieve the coveted unicorn status within 21 months, surpassing the B2B commerce startup Udaan, which had entered the unicorn club within 26 months since its inception.

Apna is also the 27th Indian startup to achieve unicorn status, raising around USD 190 million in 2021 alone. The new funding round saw investments from Sequoia Capital India, Owl Ventures, Maverick Ventures, Insight Partners, and GSV Ventures.

The professional networking platform aims to use the fresh funds towards product development and to include functions such as engineering and product across its team of 280 members. The fresh funds will also help the firm to expand its reach and register its footprint across the United States, Middle East, and Africa.

Nirmit Parikh, the founder, and Chief Executive Officer at Apna confirmed that the company will not be focusing on monetization immediately, as its priority currently lies in India’s acceleration. He added that all the pilot programs, including skilling products and recruitment products, have been very successful.

Parikh added that Apna has grown by 125 times over the last fifteen months. The ed-tech-focused investor Owl Ventures will allow the startup to determine the skill-tech trajectory. The graph would combine in-house curation and curriculum from both existing companies and creators.

One of the partners at Tiger Global Griffin Schroeder was quoted saying that Apna deploys an innovative approach to connect employees with job seekers, further allowing it to gain significant traction in a short amount of time.

Apna used to operate in 14 cities and has now expanded to over 28 cities pan-India in the last 2 months.

Source Credits –

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/apna-becomes-youngest-startup-to-enter-unicorn-club-in-21-months/articleshow/86246042.cms