India’s Emversity Doubles Valuation as It Scales the Workers AI Can’t Replace | TechCrunch

As AI automates parts of the workforce, Emversityan Indian workforce training startup is building talent pipelines for roles it believes AI cannot replace, and has raised $30 million in a new round to expand job-ready training in the world’s most populous market.

The all-equity Series A round was led by Premji Invest, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Z47, the Bengaluru-based startup announced on Thursday. The funding values ​​Emversity at about $120 million post-money, sources confirmed to TechCrunch, up from about $60 million in the April 2025 pre-Series A round. Total funding now stands at $46 million.

India faces a widening skills gap, with graduates often entering the labor market without job-ready skills, while key service sectors struggle to hire skilled workers. On healthcare, the Indian government says the country has done just that approximately 4.3 million registered nurses and 5,253 nursing facilities that produce approximately 387,000 nurses annually, but recent reports have continued to signal a shortage. The hospitality industry has also had to deal with one 55% to 60% gap between supply and demand for workers, according to industry estimates.

Emversity aims to bridge that gap by integrating employer-designed training programs into university curricula and running skills centers affiliated with the Government of India’s National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) for short-term certifications and placements.

The two-year-old startup works with 23 universities and colleges on more than 40 campuses and focuses on ‘grey collar’ roles – positions that require hands-on training and qualifications – including nurses, physiotherapists and medical laboratory technicians, as well as hospitality roles such as guest relations and food and beverage.

Emversity has trained about 4,500 students and placed 800 candidates so far, founder and CEO Vivek Sinha (pictured above) said in an interview.

Sinha, who previously worked as Chief Operating Officer at Indian edtech startup Unacademy for more than three years before starting Emversity in 2023, told TechCrunch that he came up with the idea while working on test prep courses for entry-level government jobs. He noticed that the candidates included engineers, MBAs and even PhDs.

“I started talking to these students,” he said. “Some of them had paid tuition at private colleges and spent 16 to 18 years getting those degrees.”

Sinha said the gap has widened in recent years and could grow further as automation and new workplace tools change what employers expect from entry-level workers, while demand remains strong in skilled workforces such as healthcare, where hands-on training and staffing still matter.

“AI can reduce a nurse’s administrative work, such as archiving patient data or electronic medical records,” Sinha said. “But AI cannot replace a nurse if you still need one in an ICU for every two beds.”

Emversity works with employers such as Fortis Healthcare, Apollo Hospitals, Aster, KIMS, IHCL (Taj Hotels) and Lemon Tree Hotels to co-design role-specific training modules, which universities then help integrate into their courses. The startup does not charge employers but instead earns revenue through fees paid by partner institutions and through short-term certification programs conducted at NSDC’s affiliated skill centers.

The startup operates with gross margins of around 80% and has managed to keep customer acquisition costs below 10% of revenue by relying largely on organic channels rather than performance marketing, Sinha said.

He added that the startup provides a career guidance platform for high school students, which generated more than 350,000 inquiries and accounted for more than 20% of revenue last year.

With the new funding, Emversity plans to expand its presence to more than 200 locations over the next two years and deepen its focus on healthcare and hospitality, while entering new industries such as engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and manufacturing. The startup is already in advanced talks with one of India’s top EPC companies to design and roll out role-specific programs this year, and plans to start production-oriented training next year, Sinha said.

To deliver consistent results across campuses, Emversity combines employer-led curriculum design with hands-on training infrastructure, including simulation labs for clinical roles such as nursing and emergency medicine.

Last year, Emversity’s revenues were about evenly split between the university’s embedded training programs and short-term certification courses delivered through its own skills centers, Sinha said.

While Emversity is currently building talent pipelines for domestic employers, Sinha said the startup sees an opportunity to eventually meet international demand as well, especially in healthcare, as aging populations in markets like Japan and Germany look for skilled workers. However, he did not reveal the exact timetable for meeting global demand.

Emversity has approximately 700 employees, including 200 to 250 trainers spread across the campus network.