Indian company Emversity is doubling its valuation as it expands the pool of workers that AI cannot replace

As AI automates parts of the workforce, Emversity, an Indian workforce training startup, is building talent pipelines for roles it sees as AI cannot replace, and has raised $30 million in a new round to expand job-ready training in the world’s most populous market.

The all-equity round was led by Premji Invest, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Z47, the Bengaluru-based startup announced on Thursday. Sources confirmed to TechCrunch that Emversity’s funding value is about $120 million, up from about $60 million in a pre-Series A round in April 2025. Total funding now stands at $46 million.

India faces a widening skills gap, with graduates often entering the workforce without job-ready skills even as key service sectors struggle to recruit trained staff. In healthcare, the Indian government says the country has about 4.3 million registered nurses and 5,253 nursing institutions that produce approximately 387,000 nurses annually, yet recent reports have continued to point to shortages. The hospitality sector also faced a supply-demand gap of 55% to 60% for workers, according to industry estimates.

Emversity is trying to bridge this gap by integrating employer-designed training programs into university curricula and running the Indian government’s National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) skill centers for certifications and short-term jobs.

The two-year-old startup has partnered with 23 universities and colleges on more than 40 campuses and focuses on “white collar” roles — jobs that require hands-on training and certification — including nurses, physical therapists and medical laboratory technicians, as well as hospitality roles such as guest relations and food and beverage service.

Emversity has trained about 4,500 learners so far and has hired 800 candidates so far, Emversity founder and CEO Vivek Sinha (pictured above) said in an interview.

Sinha, who previously served as chief operating officer at Indian edtech startup Unacademy for more than three years before starting Emversity in 2023, told TechCrunch that he conceived the idea while working on test preparation courses for entry-level government jobs. He noted that applicants included engineers, MBA holders, and even doctorates.

“I started talking to these learners,” he said. “Some of them paid tuition to private colleges and spent 16 to 18 years getting those degrees.”

The gap has widened in recent years and could grow further as automation and new workplace tools change what employers expect from entry-level employees, Sinha said, while demand remains strong in accredited roles such as healthcare, where hands-on training and employability ratios remain important.

“AI can reduce the administrative work of a nurse, such as keeping patient details or electronic medical records,” Sinha said. “But AI can’t replace a nurse if you still need one ICU nurse for every two beds.”

Emversity works with employers such as Fortis Healthcare, Apollo Hospitals, Aster, KIMS, IHCL (Taj Hotels), and Lemon Tree Hotels to co-design role-specific training modules, which it then helps universities embed in their degree programmes. The startup does not charge any fees to employers, instead generating revenue through fees paid by partner organizations and through short-term certification programs run at NSDC’s skill centres.

The startup operates on a gross margin of about 80%, and has kept customer acquisition costs below 10% of revenue by relying largely on organic channels rather than performance marketing, Sinha said.

He added that the startup offers a career counseling platform for high school students, which generated more than 350,000 inquiries and accounted for more than 20% of revenue last year.

With the new funding, Emversity plans to expand its footprint to more than 200 locations over the next two years and deepen its focus on healthcare and hospitality, while entering new industries such as engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and manufacturing. The startup is already in advanced discussions with one of India’s largest EPC companies to design and deploy role-specific software this year, and plans to begin manufacturing-focused training next year, Sinha said.

To deliver consistent outcomes across campus, Emversity combines employer-led curriculum design with hands-on training infrastructure, including simulation labs for clinical roles such as nursing and emergency care.

Last year, Emversity’s revenue was split almost evenly between its university-based training programs and short-term certificate courses conducted through its skill centres, Sinha said.

While Emversity is currently building talent pipelines for local employers, Sinha said the startup sees an opportunity to eventually serve international demand as well, particularly in healthcare, where aging populations in markets like Japan and Germany are looking for trained workers. But he did not reveal the specific timetable to meet global demand.

Emversity has about 700 employees, including 200 to 250 trainers spread across its campus network.