Surge portfolio InterviewBit Academy raising $20 Mn from Tiger Global and Sequoia

Sequoia's commitment to supporting all selected startups under its accelerator program, Surge, has now started bearing fruits for them. Out of the eight Indian startups selected under its portfolio, four have already raised external round since their entry in Surge.

Now, InterviewBit Academy is joining the league to raise external rounds from none other than New York-based hedge fund Tiger Global, which has been on an investment spree in India.

According to a TOI report, the income-sharing agreement (ISA) startup where students/professionals have to pay only skilling fee after getting the desired job, is raising up to $20 million in a fresh round. Apart from Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital India and Singapore's Economic Development Board (EDB) will be participating in the round that will make the Pune-based startup a $100 million valued company.

Citing sources, the report added that the three institutional investors would put around $19 million while some angel investors will contribute the rest amount. The angel investors are likely to get on-boarded by the startup founded by Abhimanyu Saxena and Anshuman Singh, former executives at Fab.com and Facebook, respectively.

Entrackr has sent a query to InterviewBit Academy. We'll update the post as and when the response comes in.

The fresh proceeds will be used for expansion in India, as well as overseas markets such as Indonesia, the US, among others.

InterviewBit essentially provides a six months immersive program that helps students develop tech skills and get their dream job at no upfront cost. Till date, it has built a community of about 10 lakh engineers along with 500-600 tech companies including Google, Amazon, Facebook and Uber.

For the April batch, the startup claims to provide 100% placement with a minimum annual salary of Rs 15 lakh. The next batch is scheduled to start from 2nd September 2019.

Apart from InterviewBit, Surge's first cohort include Bulbul, DoubtNut, Flynote, Hippo Video, Azani Sports, Khatabook and Skillmatics.

Of late, Doubtnut claims to have recorded 6X growth in monthly active user and 8X growth in daily active users since the company joined the Surge portfolio. Soon after the selection in the cohort, the edtech startup had raised $3.3 million from Sequoia, Waterbridge Ventures, Omidyar Network and Japanese mobile gaming company Akatsuki Inc.

Flynote, Azani Sports, and Skillmatics are the other three startups which have raised funds after selection in the accelerator program.

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