Iron Pillar, a venture growth investor backing global technology companies built from India, today announced its USD 15 million investment in Y Combinator-backed, engineering-focused edtech start-up, Skill-Lync. Existing investors, Y Combinator and Better Capital, also invested in this $17.5 million funding round. In addition, Binny Bansal (Co-founder of Flipkart), Sai Krishnamurthy (ex-Flipkart; Co-founder of Xto10X) and Rashmi Kwatra (Founder of Sixteenth Street Capital) joined as new investors in this round.
Skill-Lync provides job leading industry-relevant courses in the Mechanical, Electrical, Civil and Computer Science Engineering domains for students in India and other parts of the world. Interdisciplinary and job-oriented courses in topics such as Electric Vehicle Design, Embedded Systems design, Autonomous Vehicle, Renewable Energy, Full-Stack Development, Data Analytics and Construction Project Management, ensure alignment of the engineering talent pool with the needs of these industries. The capital raised will be used to increase the number of courses offered by Skill-Lync, build out the next level of the strong management team and expand the business to international markets.
Suryanarayanan P, Co-Founder and CEO, Skill-Lync, said, “The ever-increasing gap between what industries expect and what students learn during their engineering education has caused a global shortage of high-quality engineering talent. The rapid adoption of new technologies by industries has also created a need for the constant upskilling of engineering professionals. Hence, the need of the hour is to have engineers who have knowledge of both engineering fundamentals and how they can be applied to solve real-world engineering problems through engineering design and simulation tools. Skill-Lync’s ability to understand the demands of the industry through our deep industry partnerships and expert network has allowed us to create technical content that matches the present and future requirements of industries across the globe. We believe that our partnership with Iron Pillar will allow us to tap into Iron Pillar’s network of global experts and help us accelerate towards our goal of building a global alternate platform for engineering education. We are also thankful to our existing investors, Y Combinator and Better Capital, for their continued trust in our mission.”
Anand Prasanna, Managing Partner, Iron Pillar, said, “Engineering education and upskilling outside of Computer Science has seen very little digital disruption over the last two decades. This, combined with the ever-expanding need for real-world interdisciplinary applications of engineering in today’s world creates a unique opportunity to establish a multi $ Billion global company with deep moats in this space. This is also a strong beachhead for expansion into multiple adjacent areas. Surya, Sarang and rest of the Skill-Lync team have already built a great product and significant revenue in the business, with exceptional growth and capital efficiency. We feel privileged to have the opportunity to partner with them in this journey.”
Skill-Lync has collaborated with 800+ Industry experts for creating their existing course content and has full-time people with extensive experience in the Industry (with companies like Bosch, Cummins, ABB, Samsung, Accenture etc.) to provide students a world-class learning experience. Given its specialized digital delivery model, the platform has the highest course completion rates in specialised course categories.
About Skill-Lync
Skill-Lync was launched in April 2018 by Suryanarayanan P (CEO) and Sarangarajan V (CTO) to address the lack of quality and application-based learning in the Indian undergraduate engineering education system. It is currently focused on providing students with two different models, available both online and offline:
- 8-12 month Master courses focused on providing in-depth industry-relevant technical knowledge to students along with a strong portfolio of projects that are aimed to help them get relevant jobs
- 6-Month programs at physical Skill-Centers, where the students are provided with access to hands-on practical experience and are equipped with industry-relevant skills from the experts
About Iron Pillar
Iron Pillar is a venture growth investor specializing in mid-stage technology companies “Built from India”. Founded in January 2016, Iron Pillar provides growth capital and active help in global business expansion to companies in the enterprise and consumer technology sectors. The Fund backs founding teams who want to create $1B+ enterprise value companies that are built to last.
