• • The pandemic-born startup already has grown 6X in just 6 months
  • Registered over 20,000 learners on their platform

Mumbai, 20th July 2021: CareerNinja has recently raised an undisclosed amount in pre-seed funding from Unitus Ventures. The AI-powered EdTech platform democratizes quality learning at affordable rates for anyone seeking to upskill. AI allows each course at CareerNinja to be segmented into multiple specializations and over 5,000 unique learning pathways personalized for learners’ needs. Learners on the platform also get one-on-one mentorship with industry experts, opportunities to work on guided projects, personalized doubt solving, a dedicated student success manager and guaranteed placement. Some of CareerNinja’s learners have been placed in leading companies such as GroupM, Target, 3M and WhiteHat Jr.

Founded by Shronit Ladhani in 2017, CareerNinja is focused on making high-quality learning both practical and affordable in India.

Shronit explains, The outcome-focused approach at CareerNinja simply follows Newton’s third law of motion: for every bit of effort our learners put in, we exert an equal effort to provide them with holistic upskilling, mentorship and assured placement. With about 35 million students in colleges right now, India’s employable workforce is the size of a small country.

Industrial revolution 4.0 will give birth to smart factories and a digitized new normal, where traditional skill sets will become obsolete. The World Economic Forum predicts the need to reskill more than 1 billion people by 2030. CareerNinja seamlessly addresses the quality upskilling needs of those early in their career and looking to upgrade their career profiles. The company uses ML (machine learning) and NLP (natural language processing) models and frameworks to make learning more personalized and interactive while bringing down the cost.

Commenting on the fundraise, Shronit adds, “Forty-three percent of businesses surveyed indicate that they are set to reduce their workforce due to technology integration, 41% plan to expand their use of contractors for task-specialized work, and 34% plan to expand their workforce due to technology integration. This is where CareerNinja is creating an impact. We aim to touch over a million learners by 2022. The funding secured will help us to advance the product, team and technology to achieve this goal.”

A nation-wide employability report showed that graduating students had only a 20% employability in today’s knowledge economy. Forty-eight percent Indian employers report difficulties filling job vacancies due to talent shortages.

A serial investor in JobTech companies, Unitus Ventures believes that the Indian economy will need to generate tens of millions of meaningful jobs for its burgeoning young population, the so-called demographic dividend. It will also need to provide the workforce opportunities to upskill themselves as technology continues to disrupt the nature of work at an ever-increasing pace.

Surya Mantha, Senior Partner, Unitus Ventures, says, “Business needs are changing rapidly and hiring needs are constantly evolving to keep up. The roots of underemployment in our country are deep. One way to address this is to make upskilling affordable and outcome focused for the millions in India’s workforce. CareerNinja aligns with our outlook and investment thesis to create meaningful solutions to address this problem at scale.”

Case studies and impact story

Sayani lost her job at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and desperately searched for a job for 6 months. Eventually, she decided to upskill and build her profile using one of CareerNinja’s personalized courses. Arpita made a career switch to pursue marketing and had to choose among 5 job offers at the end of her course at CareerNinja. Today, she works with Target Group, earning 26% more than her previous salary. At the age of 19, Bitopan landed 3 job opportunities after he built his skills with CareerNinja. In a volatile pandemic economy, with rampant job loss, CareerNinja delivers outcomes and impact.

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About CareerNinja

CareerNinja is an AI-driven Ed-Tech platform that provides personalized and experiential courses to users based on their goals and skill level to kick-start their careers. The platform enables people to take control of their lives and achieve their aspirations. Using content that includes articles, short courses, and videos, we inspire, educate and guide our youth across their academic, professional, personal and social lives to become more successful. More about CareerNinja>

About Unitus Ventures

Unitus Ventures is the leading venture fund in India that supports early stage fintech, healthcare, and jobtech startups with India scale and global potential. Launched in 2012, Unitus Ventures is a founding member of Capria Network, the leading global network of emerging market fund managers collaborating to deliver superior returns and scaled impact. Unitus Ventures is based in Bangalore and Seattle. More at: https://unitus.vc and http://capria.vc/network