Reskilling startup InterviewBit raises ₹142.6 crore from Sequoia India and Tiger Global

• Indian reskilling startup InterviewBit that provides coding training and interview questions has raised $20 million ( ₹142.6 crore) in Series A financings from Sequoia India, Tiger Global and Global Founders Capital.
  
• The startup recently launched an online computer science programme — Scaler Academy — for graduates and software engineers.
  
• Scaler Academy rolled out a six-month long online course to reskill its learners in coding.

Indian reskilling startup InterviewBit raised $20 million (₹142.6 crore) from Sequoia India and Tiger Global, in a Series A funding.

Founded in 2015, the Pune-based startup provides coding training and facilitates interview preparation. It recently launched an online computer science programme — Scaler Academy — for graduates and software engineers. The programme had attracted over 200,000 applications within nine months of the launch.

“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 will 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,” said Anshuman Singh, co-founder, InterviewBit.

The edtech startup said that it will use the fresh capital to expand users and foray into new markets. It will also invest in its live-teaching technologies and curriculum to provide an enhanced user experience.

Currently, the academy has a user base of nearly 2,000 students. The startup claims to have placed hundreds of engineers in top notch companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Samsung.

“There is a huge global scarcity of high-quality software talent, and we have experienced it firsthand across the portfolio. As a result, we are partnering to build an advanced online computer science programme,” said Shailendra Singh, managing director, Sequoia Capital India.

Lack of employability skills

Of the 4 million students that enroll in engineering courses in a year, merely 3.5% are employable across software development roles while the percentage falls further for skills in emerging technologies like AI, data science and machine learning.

To bridge that gap, Scaler Academy rolled out a six-month online course to reskill its learners in coding, providing hands-on experience in latest technologies. The learners are mentored by subject matter experts from companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter and Netflix.

“Scaler Academy was incubated with InterviewBit to help young professionals and students learn advanced programming skills. Within a short period of time, it has made a huge impact on the capabilities of our students, who spend, on average 4-5 hours per day on our online and live learning platform,” said Abhimanyu Saxena, co-founder of InterviewBit.

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