Former Unacademy COO Vivek Sinha raises $11 Mn for his new startup

Vivek Sinha, the former Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Unacademy, has launched his new venture called Beyond Odds Technologies, with an initial investment of $11 million. The seed funding round was led by Matrix Partners India and Lightspeed.

InnoVen Capital, a subsidiary of Temasek, and Alteria Capital also joined the round among other angel investors namely Ritesh Agarwal (Founder of OYO), Gaurav Munjal (Founder of Unacademy), Mayank Kumar (Founder of Upgrad), Ramakant Sharma (Founder of Livspace), Abhishek Goyal (Founder of Tracxn), Rohit MA (Founder of CloudNine Hospitals), Sumer Juneja (Managing Partner at SoftBank), Puneet Kumar (Managing Director at Steadview Capital), and Abhinav Sinha (COO of OYO).

The Bengaluru-based startup focuses on employability-led training, certification, and recruitment services for the grey-collar workforce segment. It connects employers with talent among students.

The company is launching Emversity, a higher education brand, with its first center in Bengaluru on April 20, followed by six more centers in cities like Hyderabad, Delhi, Nagpur, Kochi, and Ranchi by June. These centers will offer bachelor's degree programs, including nursing, and certification courses in partnership with universities, the company said in a statement.

As per the company, Emversity's first cohort will include programs tailored to meet skill requirements in healthcare, with tie-ups with institutions like Fortis Hospitals and Core Diagnostics for job placements and internships.

Vivek Sinha announced his departure from Unacademy in August 2023 after serving for three years. Previously, Sinha was a business head at Oyo between April 2018 to September 2020.

His resignation was part of a series of notable exits from Unacademy, including chief marketing officer Karan Shroff, chief of staff Abhyudayay Rana, and chief financial officer Subramanian Ramachandran. Shroff also launched his new startup LightFury Games which recently raised $8.5 million in its Seed round led by Blume Ventures.