Founded by Ankit Aggarwal, Unstop, a community engagement and hiring platform for students and graduates, has raised $5 million as its first funding round. The round was led by Mynavi, Japan’s leading Job Board and HRTech firm. Coursera, one of the largest online learning platforms in the world with operations in India, also provided funding.
The investment round also included participation from Venture Catalysts and 9Unicorns, and Pankaj Bansal through his fund Caret Capital.
Unstop is a playground for talented individuals to learn, upskill, showcase their skills, gain CV points, and get hired to unlock their true potential throughout their academic journey. This enables them to eventually get hired by their dream employers and start their career journey.
Hidekazu Ito, Managing Director at Mynavi Solution India commented, “Mynavi is dedicated to addressing challenges in India, investing in start-ups for HR and education. Supporting Unstop can make our vision a reality, to work towards bridging skill gaps for freshers and professionals. We are excited to collaborate as a major HR provider in Japan and expand Unstop.”
Backed by the philosophy of skills-based education, Unstop aims to ensure companies find the right talent through unique engagements that focus on testing students’ real-life skills. Unstop strives to democratise hiring by recruiting the right talent globally rather than from a select list of institutes.
Apurva Shah, VP of Corporate Strategy and Financial Planning at Coursera, commented, "We are excited to partner with Unstop to advance our shared vision for skills-based hiring in India. Coursera is committed to empowering learners, and through this investment, we aim to expand opportunities for students, helping them unlock their true potential and access diverse career pathways”.
Today, Unstop is a talent community of around six million students and early talent from over 20,000 colleges attracting nearly two million monthly active users. It has more than 800 brands like Flipkart, Amazon, Reliance, TATA Sons, HUL, Reckitt, Accenture, EY, Infosys, and Wipro and other recruiters working to engage and hire from this community.
With investors and strategic partners coming on board from varying domains and geographies, Aggarwal expects to grow Unstop’s global presence. He aims to create the largest pool of qualified talent with proven employability skills and access to diverse opportunities.
This investment will help Unstop create a future where brands can match their skills requirements while engaging and recruiting talent across domains, such as engineering, MBA, arts, science, commerce, and more.
There are 40 million students currently enrolled in Indian education at a UG or PG level, out of which 50 percent are females. Over 5,000 companies are engaging with campuses across domains in India but still can’t find the right talent. Many more companies are looking to recruit graduates but aren’t able to due to accessibility.
Most students, not just from premier institutes, struggle to find jobs that excite them and deliver on their career aspirations. At the same time, many recruiters struggle to find suitable candidates for their roles given what they have to offer in terms of Pay, Career Growth and other intangible benefits. Platforms like Unstop are needed to connect employers and students so that they find value in each other by matching their needs and expected growth trajectory.
Aggarwal commented, “Our moat is our 6 million strong community. Technology platforms may become interchangeable; however, building a community and ecosystem takes ages and eventually sets you apart. This funding is a significant milestone for Unstop as our investors form a unique blend, coming together from various parts of the world and different domains (EdTech + HRTech), and supporting us in our journey with their vote of confidence on our robust proposition. This fresh capital will enable us to drive growth on all fronts and achieve our goals.”
