Main Highlights:
- Scaler, a Bengaluru-based education technology company that provides upskilling classes to Indian working professionals, revealed Tuesday that it had raised $55 million in a new round of funding to expand into overseas markets, including the United States.
- Scaler stated that the Series B financing, headed by Light rock India, values the firm at $710 million, up from around $110 million two years ago.
- Scaler also secured money from previous investors Sequoia Capital India and Tiger Global, raising the total amount to $76.5 million.
Scaler, an education technology business based in Bengaluru that offers upskilling classes to working professionals in India, announced Tuesday that it had secured $55 million in a fresh fundraising round to expand into international markets, including the United States.
Scaler said the Series B fundraising, led by Lightrock India, values the company at $710 million, up from around $110 million two years ago. Scaler also received participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital India and Tiger Global, bringing the company’s total funding to $76.5 million.
According to two persons familiar with the case, Scaler got a $400 million takeover bid from Indian tech behemoth Unacademy just months ago. Scaler declined to comment on the previously unreported takeover talks. The business began as InterviewBit, an ed-tech platform that gives students information to help them succeed in interviews. According to Abhimanyu Saxena, co-founder of Scaler, InterviewBit has millions of users and is beloved among techies.
Abhimanyu Saxena’s statement about Scaler:
He stated as follows: However, he explained, simply providing content is insufficient to help every individual through the process of preparing for a new job. Without access to a high-learning ecosystem, it is challenging for people to create a significant learning delta simply by consuming content. He continued by saying That the service was failing to assist those who were disadvantaged at the grassroots level.
While InterviewBit continues to operate and is one of the most popular interview prep applications in India, Scaler is the startup’s namesake and marquee item seeking to solve the bigger problem. The startup offers nine- to eleven-month courses to working professionals in cohorts. Scaler educates these folks courses meant to help them develop the skills necessary to secure employment and explore new possibilities throughout this period.
Today, the startup provides classes in data science and machine learning. According to Saxena, these curricula were developed by dozens of big technology firms, including Amazon, Google, Microsoft, PayPal, Adobe, VMware, and Uber. They previously worked as a software architect at the e-commerce startup Fab.com. (Anshuman Singh, Scaler’s other co-founder, formerly worked on Facebook’s Messenger.)
Scaler courses typically cost around $3,350, and consumers can pay in whole or in installments via a loan from one of the non-bank financial institutions with which Scaler has partnered. (Scaler does not have an income-sharing arrangement. Saxena stated that certain parts of the income sharing scheme disfavor cohort members.)
On Scaler, students view three to four live courses each week, complete assignments, and access teaching assistants and mentors for assistance and clarification. Scaler also engages with businesses to assist its cohort members in finding and securing better employment as part of its service. He stated that individuals spend three hours or more every day on Scaler.
Scaler’s objective, he stated, is to bridge the vast gap between what colleges and other institutions produce and what the IT sector requires. Scaler hires individuals that have already worked at other businesses. They are equipping them with the hard talents that the world’s Amazons and Googles require.
Saxena stated that as corporations expand their hiring abroad, Scaler would assist India in shifting its narrative from a source of low-wage engineers to a source of globally competitive high-skilled personnel. He stated that the failure of legacy institutions in India’s higher education sector, notably in the IT industry, has created chances for self-proclaimed status-quo disruptors such as Scaler to promote a new way of thinking that is not centered on cost arbitrage.
India, which has over 250 million school-aged children, generates over a million engineering graduates each year. Most of these folks struggle to get work, let alone the gigs they desire.
Scaler is creating a learning community that is accountable for outcomes and geared for the future of work, according to Divya Venkatavaraghavan, Principal Investor at Light rock India. He said that the business is still gathering data on the remaining members and is collaborating with a significant auditing firm. Scaler has enrolled over 15,000 persons, and approximately 6,000 have completed the program. Ninety-six percent of job seekers currently work for a tier 1 business. Amazon has hired over 300 workers, he stated.
Scaler’s acquisition of new firms:
He added that the business, which claims to be profitable, intends to use the additional capital to experiment aggressively in new regions into which it is expanding, naming the United States as one of those markets. He added that scaler is also trying to acquire new firms, particularly in emerging areas, to accelerate its growth.
Shailendra J. Singh, Managing Director of Sequoia Capital (India) Singapore, stated that the most distinguishing aspect of [Scaler’s] strategy is their intense focus on highly high-quality computer science education delivered through their unique approach that makes their programs practical and applicable in the workplace.
This results in an extraordinary student NPS and job placements for Scaler students. They are ecstatic to go on this adventure with them to touch the lives of so many high-potential computer programmers positively.
