InterviewBit, an edtech startup that offers online training for a career in programming, has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round.
The round was led by Sequoia Capital India and Tiger Global Management, with participation from Global Founder Capital among others.
Founded in 2015 by Abhimanyu Saxena and Anshuman Singh, InterviewBit provides students and young professionals the skills needed for technology jobs, mentors them to crack recruitment processes as well as provides referrals to the best opportunities in the software industry across the globe. The startup has more than a million registered software developers with over 300K monthly active users. InterviewBit works with over 600 global companies, including Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, Uber, Flipkart, Myntra and Dunzo, among others, providing them the best tech talents.
InterviewBit had recently launched a successful advanced online coding program, called Scaler Academy, for college graduates and young professional software engineers. The 6-month immersive online program enhances the coding skills of students and professionals with exposure to the latest technologies. The students enrolled in the program are mentored and taught by tech leaders and subject matter experts working with leading organizations including Google, Facebook, Twitter and Netflix, among others. Scaler Academy has received more than 200,000 applications since it launched in April 2019. InterviewBit said 2,000 students are currently enrolled in the program.
Commenting on the development, Anshuman Singh, Co-founder, InterviewBit, said,
“We are thrilled by the faith and support shown to us by our investors. A lot of young engineers don’t always have access and exposure to the relevant technical skills or recruitment processes of global companies. Our mission is to bridge that gap and help them grow in their careers. We are pleased to be able to help young engineers expand their knowledge and coding skills and enable them to get top tier software engineers jobs at the best global tech companies.”
The company said it will use the latest funds to scale up their enrolment and launch in new markets, while also investing in their curriculum and their live teaching product to enhance teacher-student experience.
Drawing emphasis on huge scarcity of high-quality software talent across the globe, Shailendra Singh, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital (India) Singapore, said,
“There is a huge global scarcity of high-quality software talent, and we have experienced it firsthand across the portfolio. As a result, we were very excited about Anshuman and Abhimanyu’s vision to build an advanced online computer science program. We were very fortunate to work closely with them to launch Scaler Academy during Surge 01 and are thrilled with the early results. Sequoia India is excited to partner with them to help realize Scaler’s full potential.”
Scott Shleifer, Partner at Tiger Global, also commented on the investment saying, “We are excited to invest in and partner with InterviewBit. We believe the company helps students learn skills that can enable them to achieve greater professional success.”
A recent National Employability Report Engineers, 2019, by Aspiring Minds, highlighted the employability of Indian engineers continues to be as low as 20%. InterviewBit in its press release stated that more than four million students get enrolled in engineering colleges in the country in a given year. Out of this, the company said, only 3.4% of engineers are considered employable for software engineering product roles and between 1 to 5% are deemed employable in AI, mobile app and web development. In such scenario, the company said, Scaler Academy is providing the perfect platform to software engineers, connecting them with industry leaders.
Img Src: InterviewBit
