Apna, a professional networking platform for blue and grey collar workers, has raised $70 million in its Series B round led by Insight Partners and Tiger Global. Existing investors Sequoia Capital India, Lightspeed India, Greenoaks Capital and Rocketship VC have also participated in the round.
This is the second fundraise for the Bengaluru-based startup in 2021. Three months ago, it raised $12.5 million in its Series A round led by Sequoia Capital India and Greenoaks Capital. With this investment, Apna has now raised over $90 million and according to the company, it is now valued at $570 million within 16 months of launch.
The fresh proceeds will go towards building more new products, expanding its team size and spreading to new geographies such as to Southeast Asia and the United States in the coming year, said the company in a statement.
The Nirmit Parikh-led company provides vertical communities for painters, field sales agents, carpenters, among others on its platform. According to the company, several of India’s leading companies such as Zomato, Burger King, Bharti-AXA, Delhivery, Teamlease, G4S Global, Swiggy, Shadowfax and 1mg rely on Apna to address their most urgent and critical hiring needs.
It has also partnered with public and private organizations and is supporting the National Skill Development Corporation, UNICEF Yuwaah and the Ministry of Minority Affairs of India to provide better skilling and job opportunities to candidates.
The company claims to have over 10 million users and is currently present in 14 cities including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kanpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Pune and Ranchi.
Apna has become another Sequoia-backed company where Tiger Global has led or participated in a new round in 2021. The New York-based fund has invested in over half a dozen Sequoia-backed companies in the last six months which include Moglix, Groww, CRED, Innovaccer, GoMechanic, Plum and Coinswitch Kuber.
According to Entrackr’s sources, it is also going to back three more Sequoia-backed companies such as edtech startup Classplus, Social community enabler Kutumb and fintech company BharatPe.
