CareerLabs raises $2.2Mn from Rocket Internet's VC fund-GFC & angel investors

CareerLabs, India’s 1st Profile Building Platform for college students and working professionals, has secured $2.2 Million in a new financing round as it looks to scale its platform, including a new product.

Rocket Internet's VC fund - Global Founders Capital invested in the Bengaluru-based startup’s Pre-Series A round with participation from Toshan Tamhane, Chief Digital Officer, UPL, Ajit Isaac, Founder Chairman of QuessCorp, Rohit Kale, MD, Spencer Stuart, Professors of ISB, Ghanshyam Dass- Former MD- Asia Pacific & Middle East, Nasdaq and Abhishek Nag, Director of Business Development -India and South Asia, Netflix and other angel investors.

Founded in 2019 by the ex-leadership team of BYJU’S, led by serial entrepreneur PN Santosh, Ex- Mckinsey alumnus and Ex- founding member at BYJU's, Krithika Srinivasan from University of Michigan and Prasanna Alagesan, an alumnus of IIM Bangalore, CareerLabs is building India’s first Profile Builder Platform to help college students and working professionals discover their career paths and prepare for a life beyond college at scale and at affordable price.

CareerLabs provides a technology-enabled platform with an unique Career Track recommendation engine called Career Wizard which helps CareerLabs provide suitable Industry-recognized Courses & Certifications for upskilling. The career skilling solutions are carefully built to make it affordable at a price that is 70% lower than similar solutions. Through a completely planned journey involving detailed profile analysis, personalized mentoring & recruitment help, CareerLabs is enabling millions of students in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities to also access the same quality content and services.

Commenting on the announcement, PN Santosh, Co-Founder & CEO of CareerLabs said, “India’s vision of “Make in India” leading to Atma Nirbhar Bharat can be a reality only if India leverages its demographic dividend. With CareerLabs we strongly intend to bridge this supply-demand gap and enable 1 million students to learn and earn better by providing everyone a chance to achieve a successful career thereby creating a motivated workforce. We are investing in building the right Machine Learning Models with the focus on identifying the right Career Tracks for students and incorporating the right engagement activities resulting in successful outcomes for students.”

Talking about their investment in CareerLabs, Roel, Partner at Global Founders Capital commented, “We are highly impressed by Santosh and the CareerLabs team and love their passion to create a better end-to-end solution for career discovery, skilling and recruitment. We are convinced that they will have a significant impact on the lives of millions of graduates in India in the years to come, and are proud to be part of their journey.”

CareerLabs specializes in not just Computer Science track but has a wide range of profile building Career Tracks in Electronics, Mechanical, Civil and Techno managerial domains covering creative and interdisciplinary domains. These come from the industry with practical learning and capstone projects validated by industry mentors which ensures high course completion rates which finally leads to students getting better jobs in their fields of choice or entry to top programs at Master’s level.

“Engineering undergraduate students are at a pivotal phase in their professional careers and yet, they don’t find a helping hand that works with them to enable the right career and higher education decisions. CareerLabs brings decades of experience at BYJU’s where the team solved this problem for school students and I’m excited about the impact they’ll have in the undergraduate space in India.” Said Abhishek Nag, Director of Business Development -India and South Asia, Netflix.

"I am amazed at how CareerLabs is using technology to transform the traditional field of skilling, in terms of mapping prospective industry requirements, designing curriculum and then delivering in a suitable context. Moreover, the team is incorporating softer dimensions of adult learning through technology to ensure better candidate preparedness to take on the challenges of the real world" - Toshan Tamhane- Ex Mckinsey partner and Chief Digital Officer, UPL

Most of EdTech has taken the high cost route where courses and education services are priced very high making it unaffordable for most students. CareerLabs is looking at reversing the trend and using its Profile Builder platform to reduce the costs to make it affordable to almost 99% of students across India. This will democratize the skilling opportunities and impact students across India and the world. In the near future, the brand will reach out to over 1000 colleges covering 600,000 students and help everyone discover their dream careers through its AI enhanced Career discovery engine, CareerWizard.