Growth School, a community-led live learning platform, announced that it has raised $5 million in its seed round led by Sequoia Capital India and Owl Ventures.
The round also witnessed participation from over 80 angel investors, including reputed entrepreneurs like Kunal Shah, Nikhil Kamath, Ritesh Agarwal, Tanmay Bhat as well as some international angels like Austen Allred (founder Lamda school), Shaan Puri, Eric Siu.
According to the company's statement, the Bengaluru-based startup plans to use the funds to expand its team and build a robust tech platform. It also plans to venture into newer markets and as part of that foray, also explore metaverse for education.
Founded in 2020 as a bootstrapped company by Vaibhav Sisinty, Growth School partners with experts to create high-impact cohort-based programs on personal and professional growth for learners. The startup’s programmes are curated to teach skills that are relevant on the job in a short period of time so students are employable immediately.
Growth School offers a wide range of programs such as UI, UX, Performance Marketing, how to become a freelancer, how to build and sell your NFT, how to Invest in Crypto, how to start a D2C business, etc.
Speaking about the company, Founder of Growth School, Vaibhav Sisinty, said, "I spent the last two years training over 100,000 people in growth marketing, and that's when I realized most of the candidates wanted real-life skills that they can use to produce immediate results in their careers. When someone is actively seeking a job, they do not have the luxury of doing a long-term program that spans over months. That is how I founded Growth School, with the mission of helping people get the best skill upgradation from top professionals in the industry, over the shortest period of time. We aim to be the go-to platform for learners all over the world to acquire skills from the top 1 percent of industry experts."
By partnering with professionals who are the key leaders and influencers in their fields, the platform allows users to learn from the very people they aspire to be. For an average job seeker who does not have the luxury of time, Growth School’s short programs are tailored to develop the skills a candidate would need 80 percent of the time for their new/current job. With these bespoke professional programs of duration four, eight and 12 weeks, Growth School aims to offer job seekers access to highly sought skills at an affordable rate.
Kriti Bansal, Principal of Owl Ventures, added, "We believe that Growth School has the potential to fundamentally shift how learners upskill and prepare for their personal and professional lives today. Growth School’s live learning platform has garnered strong trust among a growing community of over 200,000 users in short order as lifelong learning becomes increasingly important to stay competitive in the new digital economy. By teaching highly-relevant topics in short bursts from the leading experts on those topics, Growth School is building the go-to global platform for upskilling."
The startup claims that, till date, close to 2,00,000 users have accessed Growth School’s programs, even as the platform was in stealth mode for the most period.
Currently, Growth School’s programs and courses are diverse but the focus areas remain around design, growth marketing, creator economy areas for freelancers and YouTubers, no code development, crypto investments as well as D2C brand building.
As part of its next stage of evolution, Growth School is planning to expand the range of programs it offers as well as expand its reach beyond India, as most of the programs offered have an universal appeal and relevance.
