Apna a unicorn after fundraise of $100 million

Apna, the professional network for grey and blue-collar workers, has become a unicorn after raising fresh funds of about $100 million in series C funding, led by Tiger Global.

The round also saw participation from Owl Ventures, Insight Partners, Sequoia Capital India, Maverick Ventures and GSV Ventures. With this round, apna has attained a total valuation of $1.1 billion.

Apna has grown 125x over the past 15 months and is currently conducting 18 million interviews every month.

The company plans to use the funding to further strengthen its presence in its existing 28 cities and expand pan-indian by the end of 2021.

The team plans to double down on the edtech platform for skilling and invest in hiring exceptional talent. It also wants to build world class engineering and product capabilities.

Apna plans to build a global enterprise by venturing into new markets such as the US, Southeast Asia, Middle East and Africa, starting early next year.

“Apna has a deep social purpose, and is committed to discovery and creation of opportunities to enhance a billion livelihoods, across geographies. With the continued support of our partners, we aim to accelerate our journey of solving for the world,” said Nirmit Parikh, founder and chief executive officer (CEO), apna.

As an “undercover” blue collar worker, Parikh worked as a shop-floor employee, electrician, foreman, cashier, and other gigs before setting up apna to cater to this category. His thought process was that one cannot build a platform to cater to this section of the workforce sitting in relative luxury.

Apna’s job platform leverages a sophisticated algorithm that matches candidates with employers, taking into account their skills, experience and preferences. The app has over 70 communities for skilled professionals like carpenters, painters, telecallers, field sales agents, delivery personnel and others.