CHENNI, FEB 21
Upskilling startup NxtWave has raised Rs 275 crores in its latest fundraising round, led by Greater Pacific Capital (GPC), a leading international private equity firm. NxtWave’s existing venture investor Orios Venture Partners also participated in the current round.
Founded by IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur and IIIT Hyderabad alumni – Sashank Reddy Gujjula, Anupam Pedarla and Rahul Attuluri, NxtWave is building India’s largest online employability platform for new-age technology careers. The company has been extremely successful in creating job-ready tech professionals through its training programs. Over the last couple of years, 1,250+ companies, from fast-growing startups to Fortune 500 giants have hired NxtWave learners. Students from all the 38 districts of Tamil Nadu are learning with NxtWave and getting ready for software careers.
- NxtWave plans to utilize the funds to further enhance the learning experience by investing in product & content
- Onboard 10,000+ companies to hire its learners and fulfill skilled talent requirements of the industry
- Undertake acquisitions in the next couple of years
- Expand to multiple geographies within the country
- Students from all the 38 districts of Tamil Nadu are learning with NxtWave and getting ready for software careers.
- Two students from Tamil Nadu — K Vishal, hailing from Trichy and R Roshan Wilfred, hailing from Chennai, were among the 25 Fly High Challenge winners across the country.
Recently, NxtWave conducted the nationwide Fly High Challenge for students. Two students from Tamil Nadu — K Vishal, hailing from Trichy and R Roshan Wilfred, hailing from Chennai, were among the 25 winners across the country. The students would soon Fly to Dubai to join the prestigious 4.0 Tech Camp to learn advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, IoT directly from world-class professionals.
Commenting on the new funding, Rahul Attuluri, Co-Founder & CEO – NxtWave said, “We’re excited to have GPC as a new partner in our journey. Tamil Nadu has one of the leading IT hubs of our country and it’s growing rapidly. Together with GPC, we want to make world-class training in software development available to youngsters in every corner of the state and equip them for the jobs of the future.”
According to a Morgan Stanley’s ‘Why this is India’s Decade’ report, India’s IT exports are expected to grow threefold in the next 8 years, from$178 billion to $527 billion. This brings abundant career opportunities for India’s youth. NxtWave is bridging the widening industry-academia gap by providing career paths to these opportunities with an industry-relevant curriculum.
Ketan Patel, Founder and CEO of GPC, commented, “India has world-class engineering institutes, and as the country positions itself as one of the leaders of the information era, the country needs to build the capacity to provide quality learning, particularly in artificial intelligence, for 500 million young Indians. Leveraging technology to fill this gap is the key to unlocking India’s economic potential and providing quality employment to its youth, which NxtWave is doing. We are excited to partner with NxtWave to rapidly scale its platform and provide access to high-quality education and training for India’s youth for this exciting global growth area.” Nandan Desai, MD and Co-Head of India for GPC, will join NxtWave’s Board as part of the transaction.
Speaking about the investment Anup Jain, Managing Partner, Orios Venture Partners said, “Nearly 63% of Indian graduates are unemployed and an estimated 30 lakh new tech jobs are projected to be created in India within a few years. This gap opens up a total tech-upskilling opportunity of over $8 billion annually. NxtWave has proved it can bridge this gap successfully and is now ready for its next phase of growth across India.”
Avendus Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to NxtWave on the transaction. Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas acted as legal counsel to NxtWave and GPC, respectively.
