Entri.app, a vernacular language learning platform, focused on helping people acquire relevant job skills, has raised $7 million in Series A funding round led by Omidyar Network India with participation from Boston-based Innospark Ventures and Integrated Capital, a Hong Kong-based private equity.
The round also saw participation from leading angel investors Gokul Rajaram, a board member of Pinterest and Coinbase, and Sriram Krishnan, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z), a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, among others.
With the latest round of investment, the Kochi-based startup plans to develop its content across existing and new languages, senior-level hirings, and strategic acquisition to accelerate Entri’s growth.
Launched in 2017 by Mohammed Hisamuddin and Rahul Ramesh, Entri.app is a unique online learning app that empowers aspirants through its local language courses on up-skilling for growth in the private sector and cracking exams for government jobs. Some of its most popular course categories are Coding, Personal Finance, Spoken English, State PSC Exams, Nursing Certifications, Teacher Exams, and Engineering Technical Exams, among others. The platform provides more than 500 courses in eight languages including Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, and Odiya.
Talking about the platform, Co-founder and CEO of Entri.app, Mohammed Hisamuddin, said,
“Entri.app is focused on the non-English speaking segment in India which has over 40 crore people in the age group of 18-35. We feel that with the right kind of training and learning in their mother tongue, they can improve their employability chances and increase earning capabilities. We are focused on this segment and firmly believe we can impact more than 4 crore user’s lives in the next 3 years with the kind of headstart we have got.”
The startup also offers cohort-based courses called Entri Gold which connects a batch of students with an expert mentor who speaks their local language. The mentor ensures that the batch of aspirants achieve their goal through live interactive classes, analytics, community group activities, and personalised guidance. It claims that more than 25,000 students have cracked a government job exam with the help of its Entri Gold program. Entri.app has over 8 million registered users with over 250K paid subscribers.
Speaking about the fundraise, Principal of Omidyar Network India, Sarvesh Kanodia, said,
“Millions of young learners across the country are looking to get skilled so they can get a job either in the private or public sector or become self-employed. These learners need solutions that are contextualized for them, i.e., offering, in the local language, an affordable range of courses they can choose from. Entri.app has made great progress in terms of the variety of courses offered, number of local languages catered to, and the number of students taking up the offering. We are excited to back the team at Entri.app as they march on their mission to become the #1 learning destination for ‘Next Half Billion’ users to improve their employability and earning capabilities.”
Entri.app has partnered with diverse content creators (both online and offline) like coaching institutes, educators, and influencers to generate quality content. The company has so far signed up 30 influencers in different languages with a combined following of 20 million subscribers for their skilling courses and are targeting to sign up 100 more in 2022.
As part of its creator model, Entri.app has also recently acquired the TS Madaan YouTube channel, one of India’s largest skilling YouTube channels with more than 11 million subscribers.
Board member of Pinterest and Coinbase, Gokul Rajaram, added:
“I’m excited to support Hisam and the incredible Entri.app team. Unlike other education/learning apps that focus on academics and classes, Entri.app is focused on courses that help build practical, tangible skills and help people find jobs. Their mission is incredibly foundational for India and Indians, and I couldn’t be prouder to be involved in their journey.”
Entri.app had previously raised $3.1 million in pre-Series A funding round after raising an additional $1.7 million led by Good Capital in July 2020. HyperTrack founder Kashyap Deorah and BigBasket HR head Hari TN also participated in that round along with several angel investors from Silicon Valley and India. The start-up’s latest funding brings its total raised to $10.1 million.
