Unacademy’s former chief operating officer, Vivek Sinha, has launched his new venture, Beyond Odds Technologies, with an initial investment of $11 million (INR 91.8 Cr). Matrix Partners India and Lightspeed led the seed funding round. The round also saw participation from a clutch of other investors, including InnoVen Capital, Alteria Capital, Oyo founder Ritesh Agarwal, Unacademy founder Gaurav Munjal, upGrad founder Mayank Kumar, Livspace founder Ramakant Sharma and SoftBank partner Sumer Juneja.
The firm also counts Abhishek Goyal (founder of Tracxn), Rohit MA (founder of CloudNine Hospitals), Puneet Kumar (managing director of Steadview Capital), and Abhinav Sinha (COO of OYO) among its backers.
Bengaluru-based Beyond Odds Technologies stands out with its focus on developing employability-led training, certification, and recruitment services specifically tailored for the grey-collar workforce segment. This unique approach, designed to address the shortage of skilled workforce, acts as a bridge, connecting employers in need of talent with a supply base of students.
Speaking about Beyond Odds Technologies’ impact, Vivek Sinha said:
Our platform will address the shortages in skilled workforce in both domestic and global markets by creating high-quality supply from India. Our courses also come with ‘built-in income’, so candidates can immediately complete their formal higher education to earn their first pay cheque.
Beyond Odds Technologies is not just a startup, but a strategic player in the education sector. It operates the higher education brand ‘Emversity’, which is set to open its first centre in Bengaluru on April 20. By June, it plans to expand with six more centres in cities like Hyderabad, Delhi, Nagpur, Kochi, and Ranchi. These centres will offer bachelor’s degree programmes and certification courses in partnership with esteemed universities. This strategic move aims to address the shortage of skilled labour in sectors such as healthcare, education, hospitality, and construction.
Harsha Kumar, Partner, Lightspeed, added:
Beyond Odds recognises and aims to tackle these limitations of the current education system. By enabling vocational skills-based education among students in partnership with public and private partnerships, they’re solving college education’s demand and supply problems today.
Rajat Agarwal, Managing Director of Matrix Partners India, also stated:
With our long-standing acquaintance with Vivek, we commend his grasp of the issue and capacity to establish pioneering institutions.
Emversity has teamed up with healthcare institutions such as Fortis Hospitals and Core Diagnostics for its first batch, where students will also complete an internship during the programme. Beyond Odds will exclusively concentrate on the healthcare sector for the current academic year.
After serving for three years, Vivek Sinha announced his departure from Unacademy in August 2023. Sinha was previously the business head at Oyo from April 2018 to September 2020.
