The company said it has raised $100 million in a new financing round led by an existing investor. Tiger Global.
Ullu Ventures, Maverick Ventures and GSV Ventures have also joined as new investors in their third funding round this year.
Earlier, business-to-business (B2B) commerce startups
Udaan was the fastest home startup to reach unicorn status, within 26 months of its registration.
After the latest funding round, own.cois evaluated
doubled from its previous round in June up to $1.1 billion.
The startup has raised $190 million so far this year, including the current round.
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Existing investors Sequoia Capital India and Insight Partners also participated in the latest round.
Apna.co also becomes the 27th unicorn this year, as unprecedented amounts of capital have been infused into the startup ecosystem.
As of September 3, more than $21 billion has been invested in various startups, according to data from Venture Intelligence.
ETtech“I think for me, valuations are nothing but a directional marker that we are heading in the right direction,” Nichit Parikh, chief executive and founder, told ET. “We’ve had a stellar growth. Strong performance and consistent performance has generated a lot of investor confidence. And that’s why we see a set of investors doubling down.”
Apna.co, which was present in around 14 cities in June, has expanded to 28 cities in the last two months.
The startup plans to use the fresh capital for product development and add to its 280-member team in functions such as engineering and product development.
It will use the funds to expand across the country by the end of this year and target overseas markets such as Africa, the Middle East and the United States next year.
While the company is currently focusing on growth, it is still in the early stages of monetizing its products.
“We have been able to successfully run recruitment products as well as skilling products,” Parikh said.
He added that the company is not prioritizing monetization immediately.
“Today, our priority is India’s momentum on monetisation. And, I think, the job markets are coming back. So, very soon, we will increase our monetization too….All our pilots have been extremely successful,” he said.
He said the company has grown 125 times in the last 15 months.
According to Parikh, Owl Enterprises, an ed-tech focused investor who has
Invested in firms like White Hat Jr. and Leap Finance, will help the company chart its skill-tech trajectory, a combination of in-house curricula and curation from existing creators and companies.
“We are going to invest heavily in skilling tech as the world needs it today. Owl will be our thoughtful companion when we build it,” he said.
Established in 2019, Apna.co includes a vertical community for skilled professionals such as carpenters, painters, field sales agents and beauticians. User local on the app. make use of JobsNetwork with peers, and take advantage of upskilling opportunities.
The company has run pilots for paid products and sees monetization opportunities in both the recruiting and upskilling market.
The platform has served over six million employers across 70 vertical communities. Parikh said gig workers, sales, marketing and business development roles are particularly popular and manufacturing jobs have also boomed.
Its customers include Zomato, Flipkart, Urban Company, Byju’s, PhonePe and Burger King.
It also has a peer-to-peer network among job seekers on the platform, which helps them reskill and upskill.
“Apna Ka Viral Adoption is inspired by a novel social and interactive approach to connect employers with job seekers. “We look forward to opportunities from job seekers looking for meaningful connections and driving Apna’s continued explosive growth in India and around the world,” said Griffin Schroeder, Partner, Tiger Global.